Body Parts Fall From Plane

[Star]

NEW YORK (AP) - The body of an apparent stowaway was ripped in half during flight Tuesday and his leg crashed into a suburban neighbourhood, where a homeowner found the severed limb in the middle of her lawn, authorities said.


Pam Hearne heard "a loud crash" and later was stunned to see a foot clad in an Adidas sneaker and a sock in her yard, said officer Thomas Blanchard. The leg, with hip and spine attached, dented the shingled roof of her garage before bouncing into the lawn.

Police suspect the remains are from a stowaway who may have been crushed as the South African Airways jet lowered its landing gear on its approach to Kennedy Airport.

Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Jim Peters said the pilot of flight 203 would have probably started lowering the plane's landing gear in the sky over the home in Floral Park, a few kilometres from the airport.

Peters said a Customs agent that met the flight at the airport found another leg hanging from the wheel well.

The airline said in a statement that the flight landed with "no impact" on the passengers and crew and it was working closely with authorities to investigate how someone may have stowed away.

The flight originated in Johannesburg, and made one stop in Senegal. Authorities had not identified the remains, which were hauled away from Hearne's yard in a plastic bag.

Hearne, a special education teacher, said that when she first saw the leg in the grass, "it didn't look real."

"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.


http://news.sympatico.msn.ca/OddNews...etect=&abc=abc

[darkangelism]

thats disturbing.

[Star]

I couldn't believe what I was reading! I've never heard of this kind of thing happening before. Why would people stowaway in wheel wells? don't they realize that they'll either get killed by the wheels turning (or something mechanical) or freeze to death? What are these people thinking.

I think I would just be scared for life if I found severed body parts on my front lawn. that's would be devestating.

[Merika]

OMG Star....ME TOO! I'd need therapy....it would just mess me ALL UP! I guess the good part was that no one was driving down the road and it fell on the car to cause an accident.

[Vautrin]

It happens more often than authorities in the Western world care to admit. Of course it is a suicidal action, but it shows how desperate people are to get away from where they are.

A good question would be, what alternatives do they have. If they would travel legally to the Netherlands, they would not get asylum as they have brought their passport, so the authorities assume that there is no conflict between this person and the state. And if you don't bring your passport, you are portrayed as a gold-digger. And of course kicked out of the country within 48 hours.

[Duke]

Good thing the leg didn't land on the bbq.