Sky News reports:
“A stowaway has died after falling from a British Airways jet on to an office block in southwest London. He and another man are believed to have clung on to the passenger plane as it flew more than 8,000 miles from Johannesburg in South Africa to Heathrow.”
“The second man, aged between 25 and 30, is in a stable condition in a west London hospital after miraculously surviving the ordeal. The victim died as the plane came into land over Richmond at around 9.30am on Thursday. He reportedly landed on the roof of NotOnTheHighStreet.com in Kew Road.”
Stowaway plunges to death from BA plane (Sky News)
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No doubt great minds we’ve lost
Must have succumbed to fatigue. At least he didn’t land on the High Street.
Love the top notch reporting: ‘believed to have clung onto the plane’ as it travelled at 35,000 feet at 600mph.
Not, obviously, stowed away in the wheel well as in every other reported case of aircraft stowaways (apart from that guy who mailed himself in a box).
https://youtu.be/mI-YiaWDgB4
Heard that on TodayFM the other week. Probably a nasty piece of work, but very entertaining.
You would think if attempting this sort of thing one would adorn a parachute to try and break the fall at least, if too low to function properly.
I think you’ve used up all the wrong there.
Yeah, because if you could afford a parachute you couldn’t afford an economy ticket.
“The thing with the Irish is, yeah, if you can afford to emigrate then you can afford to eat in a moderately-priced restaurant.”
Wow some real smart asses on here, where were you educated???
Much better off investing in a warm coat – much more likely to die from hypothermia than anything else.
Realistically it’s hypoxia you’ll die from
ah sure was it the fall that killed him or the sudden shock on hitting the ground?
The shock of realising he had forgotten to pack his toothpaste?
Shurrup hypoxia
When latching on to the back of a lorry on your skateboard is just not thrilling enough.
Where on a plane could s stowaway cling? Sounds terrifying.
BA call it ‘Economy Vista’.
The wheels
That guy was aged between 25-30, possibly just a few years older than those kids killed in Berkeley. What kind of desperation drove him to take such a stupid risk, and is there a shack in Johannesburg rent with broken hearts today at the news or does anyone care?
Spot the SJW
Spot the jojo.
Straight in there Lily
“TO MY MIND YOU’RE ALL NOT SUITABLY GRIEF STRICKEN AND THIS MAKES YOU BAD PEOPLE AND THAT MEANS I’M MORE COMPASSIONATE THAN YOU AND LET ME TELL YOU WHY WHILE I RUB MESELF”
Same odious crap from the same odious people – you must look forward to tragedies.
Jayzis would you calm down! I was simply wondering out loud would anyone’s life be torn apart by news of this guy’s death. I understand the tendency to empathise with local news and to dissociate from that in distant parts. Each of us has limited emotional energy.
The whole hand wringing about ‘is there a shack’ etc is a wonderful bit of Maude Flandersing, with a hint of Bart’s people.
Ah f**k off Mani. The guy has to have come from extreme poverty to have attempted a stunt like that.
Bad mani
Get back to making cheap jokes about him from the comfort of your Mammy’s basement.
Mammy’s basement? Sounds a bit rude.
It’s not HIS mammy’s basement !
Den, den, dennnnnn!
I heard he was ejected from the aircraft for asking for a pint of water.
Oho!
Groan.
‘Simply wondering out loud’,and typing it all down,sending it to Broadsheet,awaiting replies,etc
As we do here. Pedant.
You mean like Mercille?
Is everything going to be related by comparison to the Berkeley balcony collapse tragedy? IS THIS OUR 9/11?
For at least the next week, yes
It’s our 6/13
That’s the state of humanity today. Very deficient in compassion and empathy.
Apparently not, they only confirmed his identity because they found texts in his phone from a Swiss woman in jo’berg who employed him as a gardener for a while, and all she knew was his name and that he possibly came from Mozambique.
Not even a Virgin Mary tape dispenser can help them now.
Stick to the flying lessons
Ok so we can make jokes about foreign people’s tragic deaths.
But not draw reasonable inferences when its our own.
Point taken.
Blaming people who were killed when a balcony collapsed for being too drunk to have the balcony’s structural integrity checked before walking on it is not drawing a reasonable inference.
+ 1
No one’s blaming anyone. It’s about apportioning personal responsibility – in this case it could be builders 90% kids 10% or even builders 100% as you appear to want to believe. Asking people to reflect on this issue by removing their blinkers about problem binge drinking in general is entirely reasonable. You’re free to criticise the timing of the commentary but I feel when it’s fresh in the public mind etc.. Sorry that you don’t feel the same.
Joe, you have no idea if one or all of the people having a smoke on that balcony were teetotallers. No idea. Give it a rest, it has nothing to do with the tragic incident that occured. There was no warning on the balcony telling them they should not be there, hence they had zero responsibility for what happened. You’ve been harping on about this for days now, what is your point?
Buzz. Reports indicated 6 separate complaints were filed with police about the party before the balcony fell. I’m sorry though if I inadvertently mistook that for a boisterous Ludo tournament
You think an apartment building with a structurally unsound balcony would have walls thick enough to drown out the sound of any get-together?
I went to college in the US. Noise complaints get called on EVERY party, big or small.
But no, blame the students who died because you’re a cock who has some kind of drink-guilt fetish.
I find it interesting how a gay man like yourself no doubt the victim of abuse and discrimination here over the years automatically moves into aggressive stereotyping when confronted by someone with a contrary view. I’m guessing you’ve internalised the bullying you received to such an extent that you’re unaware of the fact you’re perpetuating the same type of behaviour
Ha. What a gimp. You’re projecting your craziness again, just like when you blamed students for drinking because a balcony collapsed.
Noise can not bring down a balcony. Are you suggesting that if they’d managed to keep the volume down, they’d still be alive?
So you a haven’t been bullied or b are a bollocks or c all of the above?
Who’s we?
edit “”
Seems 23.3% of aircraft stowaway bids are successful, higher than I would have expected. No doubt they decided the odds were ok.
That’s not a good figure for airline security.
That’s horrible.
I understand a little bit better now how the NY Times was able to publish their shitty story yesterday. ‘The other’ is fair game it seems, no matter where you go.
Yes because standing on a balcony is the same thing as hanging onto a jet flying 1000’s of miles.
Oh I see. One is an accident and the other is quasi-suicide, driven by God knows what, which means we can all feel free to deride the ‘great minds we’ve lost. Idiot.
You can if you want, who’s going to stop you
“Quasi-suicide driven by god knows what” – ya fair enough Buzz im sure they had it rough in SA for them to do what they did, but hitching a ride on the exterior of a commercial airliner is more than enough to get up the charts in the Darwin awards.
Sure the guy who died trying to steal a bar of chocolate from a vending machine and it topples over him. Maybe he hadn’t eaten in days? Poor thing. :/
Now you got it
To some, yeah. To others, no.
“He and another man are believed to have clung on to the passenger plane .”
Bet he just saw the Mission Impossible trailer.
Probably just wanted to join all his British relatives.
God save the queen!
They found a body in Central Park in NY about 20 years ago. Every bone in his body was broken, and he had been frozen too. They wondered what could have caused such injury,s. They found out he was a Mexican who had stowed away in the wheel well of a plane. When it opened to land, the crushed body tumbled out and fell into the park.
lot of crappy comment on this
alot of bad sarcasm on this
What is most important in the case is how did these guys managed to get to the aircraft. Something is wrong with the security in South Africa. A suicide bomber would take advantage of that.
@ Dimitar Tsvetkov:
What (actually) is most important in this case is…
Copycat cases will be fewer and further between.
Let’s pretend for a minute that both stowaways were terrorists…
One of them is dead, the other one is critically ill in a hospital.
I don’t see the threat you allude to.
PS.
My reading of this story is that it was two men driven to do the ‘impossible’, through desperation, in an attempt at finding a better life.
Yes, it was foolish and wrong, but be thankful that you’ll never have to make the decision they felt they had to.
Had they been suicide bombers, they could have detonated a bomb shortly after takeoff and brought down the plane. That’s the threat. What’s the point of air travellers being forced to remove their shoes and hand over their Evian if airport security is that lax around the aircraft.
Don’t afford these ‘people’ the intelligence they obviously never had.
-And please, whatever you do, don’t tell them that there’s a million better ways to deliver a bomb than strapping it to your back and grabbing hold of an airplane.wheel just before take-off….
Be afraid.
ALWAYS be afraid.
I’m shitting meself as I write.