UK police believe the man they found dead on the street, apparently was a stowaway. Cause of death, according to police was due to multiple injuries.

http://news.yahoo.com/uk-police-unab...entify-man-fell-sky-075423972.html

RIP to this poor man having to resort to stowaway just to escape from his country of origin.

Yes, may this unfortunate individual RIP. This tragic incident was reported on a.net in September IIRC. What is the new news - that attempts to identify the man have failed?

UPDATE:
Pollice says Unable to identify man who fell from the sky... I hope they find out who this guy is and, maybe notify his family.
http://news.yahoo.com/uk-police-unab...entify-man-fell-sky-075423972.html

Very sad. What a horrible way to go. There are slums surrounding the perimeter of LAD, so it's likely he came from there.

Quote: Police also said attempts to identify the man with the help of Angolan authorities had been unsuccessful. They stressed there is only "circumstantial" evidence linking the stowaway to that country.

Nice. The Angolan government at its finest. This typical uncooperative attitude from the Angolan authorities will make it next to impossible to identify the man.

You hear about stories like this every now and again - it is always extremely sad and disturbing.
Most of the time, the tragedy follows a familiar path:

- the person is found dead but it is often not the fall that kills them (not sure if this is of any consolation or not)
- the suspected origin of the flight is usually a poor nation with a lack of secure perimeter at the airport
- the stowaway mistakenly believes that hitching a ride in a wheel well is possible: or the small chance of surviving and beginning a new life in a "first world" nation is worth the immense risk. of course, we usually never know for sure
- the falling corpse can cause ground damage in some cases. as distressing as it is for local residents to see a mangled body on the street, at least nobody on the ground was hurt in any way, thank goodness

There are no easy fixes to this problem. My heart goes out to the loved ones of the deceased man, whether they know he took his final ride or are simply wondering where he is.

Quoting richierich (Reply 5): it is often not the fall that kills them

It's the sudden stop at the end.

Quoting rwy04lga (Reply 6): It's the sudden stop at the end.

LOL! You beat me to it.

Anyway, don't some of those countries have signs now everywhere explaining that you will die without oxygen at -50 degrees? I remember seeing that on tv in a documentary.

Quoting MHTripple7 (Reply 4): Nice. The Angolan government at its finest.

Huh? It's the police that say the evidence is only circumstantial. How does that reflect on the Angolan government?

Anyone desperate enough to stow away is desperate enough to do whatever they need to do in
order to get to the aircraft. Whilst sad, it can be understood.

Quoting scbriml (Reply 8): Huh? It's the police that say the evidence is only circumstantial. How does that reflect on the Angolan government?

I interpreted "they" to refer to the Angolan authorities, not the police.

Quoting MHTripple7 (Reply 4): This typical uncooperative attitude from the Angolan authorities will make it next to impossible to identify the man.

With respect, the Angolan authorities may not wish to devote resources to the identification of a deceased person found in the UK who might have been an Angolan citizen.

My take on trying to establish the deceased's identity: produce an artist's sketch of the distinctive tattoo on the corpse; invite the Angolan press/TV to run the story; wait to see if any of the hundreds of thousands/millions who read/see the story come forward with identification.

A useful side effect of telling the story to a wide audience would be to make people aware that stowing away in an aircraft wheel well is very likely to result in one's death. There may well be potential stowaways who know neither that it gets extremely cold at altitude nor that the air at altitude is too thin to support life.

This poor guy landed in a street. Imagine if he fell through somebody's roof into their lounge or bedroom!
I think that would be enough to send somebody to the mental ward for a vacation!

Quoting type-rated (Reply 12): This poor guy landed in a street. Imagine if he fell through somebody's roof into their lounge or bedroom! I think that would be enough to send somebody to the mental ward for a vacation!

If the poor dead man landed in a bedroom or on a sleeping person, that would probably mean sending two people to the morgue. It's highly unlikely that a body would land ON another person but this is at least the second or third time I remember hearing about such tragedies occurring where the deceased landed on a street or a parked car, etc. If you think about it, the regions around many major airports (such as LHR) is highly built-up and even a few miles away in the area where the gear is lowered, it is likely over populated areas.

It is sad. I hope there is some effort made to find this man's next of kin, no matter how daunting of a task that may be.