London - The frozen body of an aircraft stowaway narrowly missed a sunbather after plunging into a suburban garden in London.
Police believe the man fell from inside the landing gear compartment of a Kenya Airways plane after a nine-hour flight from Nairobi.
The unknown man fell to earth as the flight approached Europe’s busiest airport just after 3.30pm on Sunday.
The stowaway fell into the back garden of a £2.3-million (about R41.2-million) home in Clapham, south London, as the jet approached Heathrow.
Shocked neighbours said he missed a man who was relaxing in the blazing sunshine by just a yard and cracked the paving.
One of the neighbours tells the Daily Mail that they heard a “whomp” and went upstairs to look out of a window and at first thought it was a homeless person asleep in the garden.
"He had all of his clothes on. I had a closer look and saw there was blood all over the walls of the garden and his head was not in a good way," says the eyewitness.
"I realised immediately that he had fallen so I went outside. It was just then that the neighbour came out and he was very shaken.
He was frozen solid. One of the reasons his body was intact was because his body was an ice block. There was a big crack on the paving."
Police suspect he was already dead before he plunged into the garden.
When the plane landed at Heathrow Airport, a bag, water and food were discovered in the landing gear compartment.
The neighbour says: "The police were here very quickly. Then a guy arrived on a bike who had been tracking the plane on an app and said it was a Kenyan airlines flight that had come from Nairobi.
"The police had four cars and they were here for about five hours. They took the body out about 8.30pm. If someone can climb up into the wheel arch, then someone can put up a bomb up there and let it off over London."
A Metropolitan Police spokesman says: "Police are working to establish the man’s identity. The death is not being treated as suspicious."
Kenya Airways said the aircraft was inspected and no damage was reported.
The airline spokesman says: "The 4250 mile flight takes eight hours and 50 minutes. It is unfortunate that a person has lost his life by stowing aboard one of our aircraft and we express our condolences. Kenya Airways is working closely with the authorities in Nairobi and London."