Police recover body of man believed to have fallen from plane into Clapham garden

Horrified householders called police after finding a body in their garden on Sunday afternoon – and officers believe he may have fallen from the undercarriage of a passing aircraft.

Cops are working to establish the identity of the dead man, who they believe may have been trying desperately to get into the country by clinging onto its landing gear.

He is thought to have stowed away, with supplies, in the wheel housing of the Kenya Airways flight from Nairobi to Heathrow. He had flown more than 6,000 miles clinging on for his life, but fell only a matter of 15 miles from his destination.

Police and paramedics were called at 3.39pm on Sunday, 30 June to a home in Offerton Road, Clapham after the body was discovered in the garden.

A post-mortem examination will be carried out in due course. Police are working to establish the man’s identity.

A crime scene was put in place but has since been closed.

The death is not being treated as suspicious.

Enquiries are underway to establish the full circumstances.

At this point, police believe the man was a stowaway and had fallen from the landing gear of an inbound Kenya Airways flight to Heathrow Airport.

A bag, water and some food were discovered in the landing gear compartment once it landed at the airport.

Enquiries continue, led by the South Central Command Unit and the Met’s Aviation Policing Command. Officers will be liaising with the airline and international authorities.