A man has been found dead in a London garden after falling from the landing gear of a Kenya Airways flight from Nairobi on its final approach to Heathrow.
Witnesses said the frozen body, which fell some 1000 metres, missed a man sunbathing in his garden by barely a metre.
The body was found in Clapham, south London at about 3.40pm local time. If it had fallen only two seconds later it could have landed on the hugely popular Clapham Common, which one local resident said was packed out with hundreds of people.
"I heard a 'whomp' - I went upstairs to look out of a window. At first I though it was a tramp asleep in the garden. He had all of his clothes on and everything. I had a closer look and saw there was blood all over the walls of the garden," a neighbour told the Press Association.
"His head was not in a good way. I realised immediately that he had fallen. So I went outside and it was just then the neighbour came out and he was very shaken. He had been sunbathing and he landed one metre away from him," the resident said.
Photos circulated on social media appeared to show the body had left a crater in the garden and smashed a slab of concrete.
Police said an examination would be carried out and they were not treating his death as suspicious.
"A bag, water and some food were discovered in the landing gear compartment once it landed at the airport," a metropolitan police statement said.
A spokesman for Kenya Airways said the 6,840km flight normally 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," the airline said.
"Kenya Airways is working closely with the relevant authorities in Nairobi and London as they fully investigate this case."
Monday's tragic incident is not the first of its kind. In 2015 one man was found on the roof of a south London building after he seemingly fell from a British Airways flight from Johannesburg to Heathrow.
In September 2012 another man perished after dropping over London on a flight bound for Heathrow from Angola.
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The National photo project
Chris Whiteoak, a photographer at The National, spent months taking some of Jacqui Allan's props around the UAE, positioning them perfectly in front of some of the country's most recognisable landmarks. He placed a pirate on Kite Beach, in front of the Burj Al Arab, the Cheshire Cat from Alice in Wonderland at the Burj Khalifa, and brought one of Allan's snails (Freddie, which represents her grandfather) to the Dubai Frame. In Abu Dhabi, a dinosaur went to Al Ain's Jebel Hafeet. And a flamingo was taken all the way to the Hatta Mountains. This special project suitably brings to life the quirky nature of Allan's prop shop (and Allan herself!).
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Starring: Walton Goggins, Jason Isaacs, Natasha Rothwell
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The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
