Know him? Police release sketch of man who fell from KQ plane in London
Police in London have released a sketch of a stowaway who fell from the landing gear compartment of a Kenya Airways airplane to the Heathrow Airport four months ago.
A statement from the Metropolitan Police on Thursday said that they are working to establish the man’s identity. Authorities in London believe that the man is Kenyan but are keeping an open mind.
Police were called on June 30, this year, following reports that a body had been discovered.
Following the discovery of the body, which had no identification, the aircraft was inspected and a bag with food and clothes was discovered at the rear left landing gear.
“The strap of the bag had the distinctive lettering ‘MCA’ written onto it, and the bag also contained a small amount of Kenyan currency.
It was previously speculated that he may have been an airport worker.
MULTIPLE INJURIES
A postmortem examination of the man, believed to have been in his 30s, gave the cause of death as multiple injuries. Police say they are not treating the death as suspicious.
Detective Sergeant Paul Graves, of the South Central Command Unit, said: “We have pursued a number of lines of inquiry in what has been a very sad incident to investigate. This man has a family somewhere who need to know what has happened to their loved one.”
He added that their investigation has included liaison with the authorities in Kenya, from where the flight took off, but so far their efforts to identify this man have proved futile.
In June, the director general of the Kenya Civil Aviation Authority Gilbert Kibe told BBC Africa: “Whoever it is most likely had access to the air side because with the way security is tight, it’s unlikely that an outsider would have been able to make his way through to the air side where an aeroplane is parked and be able to climb in.”
A statement from KQ read in part, “On June 30th at approximately 1541hours (UK time), a body of a yet to be identified male stowaway landed in a garden in the Borough of Lambeth, South London, suggesting that the stowaway was hidden in the undercarriage of the aircraft. The owner called the police who tracked the flight radar to KQ Flight 100.”
Anyone who can assist with the investigation has been asked to call the Metropolitan Police quoting the reference CAD 5395/30 June.