Frozen stowaway plunges to his death from jet flying above London after 8,000 mile journey
A FROZEN stowaway plunged to his death from a jet flying above London yesterday - but incredibly a second SURVIVED the 11-hour journey.
The stowaway fell from a Boeing 747 coming into land at Heathrow on to the roof of a Richmond office
The pair are believed to have smuggled themselves into the wheel wells of the Boeing 747 before its departure from South Africa, in a desperate attempt to reach Britain.
One of the pair, thought to be in his mid-twenties, perished during the 8,000 mile flight during which temperatures would have hit -60C.
His icy corpse tumbled to the ground and landed on the roof of an office block during the plane's approach to Heathrow - probably released as the pilot lowered the landing gear.
Police found his body lying on an electrical box on his back, with his frozen legs sticking up in the air.
However, unbelievably, his fellow stowaway survived the flight and is now in a stable condition in hospital.
If he lives, the man will have completed the longest stowaway flight to the UK, narrowly beating a migrant who came through a 10-hour journey from India in 1996.
Shocked locals described how police swarmed around the Richmond office of the clothes business NotOnTheHighStreet.com at 9.30am yesterday after the dead man's body plummeted to the ground.
Barman James Leach was setting up at his pub near the scene when he saw police swoop on the building.
The 29-year-old told The Sun: "I couldn't believe it when I heard he had fallen from a plane."
The second stowaway is believed to have been discovered when the airliner touched down at Heathrow minutes later.
Scotland Yard said in a statement: "Police were alerted at 8.28am to reports of a suspected stowaway.
"A man, aged between 25 and 30, has been taken to a West London hospital. Inquiries are ongoing to establish the man's identity."
Airline British Airways said it was a "very rare case".
He fell to his death on the roof of the offices of notonthehighstreet.com in Richmond
I couldn't believe it when I heard he had fallen from a plane
He is just the third person ever to survive such a journey to Britain, and the first to cling on in icy conditions for so long.
Long-distance airliners typically travel at altitudes of up to 40,000ft and, along with the extreme cold, a severe lack of oxygen means most who attempt such trips pass out and die within hours.
In 1996, 23-year-old Pardeep Saini became the first man to reach Britain stowed away in a wheel well when he survived a ten-hour-flight from New Delhi to London.
Amazingly he was found conscious and wandering the tarmac at Heathrow unlike his 19-year-old brother Vijay, who died on the same attempt.
Experts said he only survived because the plane flew at low altitude to avoid stormy weather. He was later released by the police with a caution.
However, for every successful attempt there are scores of fatalities.
The US Federal Aviation Administration said there have been 103 attempts to stowaway in an airliner on 92 flights since 1947, with just under a quarter proving successful.
His frozen body was discovered when the plane touched down at Heathrow.
The 26-year-old died on his birthday clinging to the wheel well to a flight from Angola to Heathrow. He was found with just a pound in his pocket.
In 2012 a stowaway fell into the street from a plane coming into land at Heathrow