New York - A man's leg and part of his torso fell from a South African Airways plane onto a suburban New York home on Tuesday as the aircraft prepared to land at John F. Kennedy Airport, authorities and the airline said.
Police said a Long Island resident living about nine kilometres from the airport called to report that a leg with a shoe on the foot had hit the roof of a garage and bounced into the back yard, where it was lying in the grass.
More remains were found inside the wheel well of the South African Airways aircraft when it landed at JFK, arriving from Johannesburg via Dakar, Senegal. Spokesperson for the Federal Aviation Administration, Jim Peters, said a customs agent meeting the plane discovered another leg hanging from the left wheel well section.
South African Airways issued a statement saying it had "a stowaway situation where remains of a human body were discovered in the wheel-well of an SAA aircraft bound for New York out of Dakar, Senegal last night".
The severed leg with a part of the man's torso fell onto the home of Pam Hearne, who said she heard "a loud crash" and thought at first that her neighbour was loading a van. She discovered the leg a few hours later.
"But I am very glad that I live where I do," she said, "so I don't have to run for my life like this man probably was doing".
There have been cases of stowaways being crushed by the mechanism in aircraft wheel wells and perishing from the extreme cold at high altitude.
The airliner said it was "working with the airport authorities in both the United States and Senegal to investigate this tragic event" and offered assurances that "there was no danger to the passengers of aircraft at any stage". - Sapa-AP