A stowaway from Europe to Africa!

[Capetonian]

A passenger plane travelling from Portugal to Angola was forced to divert after a ground worker loading cargo onto the aircraft was discovered missing.
The flight, operated by TAAG Angola Airlines, was scheduled to travel from Porto to Luanda on Saturday.
It was already en-route when the crew were informed of the possibility that the member of staff was trapped in the cargo hold and was forced to make a 'rapid descent' into Lisbon.

Normally they try to stow away northbound! Quite why anyone would try to stowaway to get to Luanda is beyond me. It's a shithole beyond compare, I think it might even be worse than Lagos although that is debatable.

Spot the two errors on the photo. Daily Mail, that authority on all things aviation. Surprisingly they got the right airline.

[Woody]

More traditional route with familiar ending

The body of a suspected stowaway who is believed to have fallen from the landing gear of a flight into Heathrow Airport has been found in a garden.
The body - believed to be that of a man - was found in Clapham, south-west London just before 15:40 BST on Sunday.
The individual is believed to have fallen from a Kenya Airways flight from Nairobi, police said.
A bag, water and some food were found in the landing gear compartment on the aircraft when it landed.
The Metropolitan Police said a post-mortem examination will be carried out in due course and his death was not being treated as suspicious.
Kenya Airways said the aircraft was inspected and no damage was reported.
A spokesman said: "The 6,840km (4250mi) flight 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.
"Kenya Airways is working closely with the relevant authorities in Nairobi and London as they fully investigate this case."

[Boac]

Ah - these cheap tickets. At least he had catering.

[ribrash]

Rayon Air ( you know who I mean ) is considering this route,but without the self catering.Bush meat must go in the hold.

[OFSO]

Not nice to find an unwanted stiff in your garden. Still, better than through your roof. Velocity must be quite high.

[G-CPTN]

A passenger plane travelling from Portugal to Angola was forced to divert after a ground worker loading cargo onto the aircraft was discovered missing.

It was already en-route when the crew were informed of the possibility that the member of staff was trapped in the cargo hold and was forced to make a 'rapid descent' into Lisbon.

Quite why anyone would try to stowaway to get to Luanda is beyond me. It's a shithole beyond compare, I think it might even be worse than Lagos although that is debatable.

I strongly suspect that the worker was 'caught napping'.

As punishment he should have been taken to Luanda and made to wait for a return seat to be available.

[OFSO]

When Corbyn gets in, bodies will be falling from flights departing Heathrow....

[Sisemen]

The guy just dropped in for tea.

[G-CPTN]

More traditional route with familiar ending

The body of a suspected stowaway who is believed to have fallen from the landing gear of a flight into Heathrow Airport has been found in a garden.
The body - believed to be that of a man - was found in Clapham, south-west London just before 15:40 BST on Sunday.
The individual is believed to have fallen from a Kenya Airways flight from Nairobi, police said.

"Kenya Airways is working closely with the relevant authorities in Nairobi and London as they fully investigate this case."

News report that the body landed one metre away from someone 'sunbathing' . . .

The body had "all of his clothes on and everything" he said.
The body was "so intact" because it was "an ice block", the man added.
He continued: "His head was not in a good way. I realised immediately that he had fallen.

[Woody]

Velocity must be quite high

. If he fell when the undercarriage was lowered, plenty of time to reach terminal velocity, I’m sure Fox3 can give us the maths.

[Pontius Navigator]

No more than 176 feet per second. Still enough to spear in. The initial horizontal velocity would be that of the aircraft but body drag would soon reduce that to the vertical terminal velocity but there would still be some horizontal component depending on release height.

The Metropolitan Police said a post-mortem examination will be carried out in due course and his death was not being treated as suspicious.

What is achieved by the ultimate indignity of cutting the body open, extracting all the organs before stuffing them back in, seeing up, and cremating him?

And open and shut case?

If foul play, how could they find the culprits by autopsy? If people smuggling - ditto. If drugged, so what?

I was just thinking, reading the OP, that we hadn't heard of undercarriage stowaways recently. Sadly one cannot underestimate the lack of intelligence and education Africa.

[Fox3WheresMyBanana]

With Clapham at 13nm from Heathrow, the airliner would probably be at 2,500 ft, and presumably around 220kts decreasing as the gear is dropped. My skydiving experience is that it takes about 800 ft / 7 seconds to reach terminal velocity of about 70mph. Terminal (vertical) velocity depends on body position, weight/volume, and smoothness of clothing. Slowest is about 70 mph with arms and legs fully extended with baggy clothing. Balled up is about 150 mph, and near 200mph for deliberately streamlined downwards (can be faster with specialist low drag gear). PN sounds about right with 120mph/176fps max for an unconscious body, probably slowly tumbling, maybe more like 100mph. Forward movement is probably about 1/4nm to 1/2nm until the forward speed from the aircraft is reduced to zero forward speed by drag.

[Capetonian]

Sadly one cannot underestimate the lack of intelligence and education Africa.

British colonies in Africa (Rhodesia and Ghana particularly but not exclusively) had superb education systems and infrastructure.

Along came the bleeding heart liberals to condemn 'colonialism' and foment unrest, accordingly the savages took over the countries, destroyed or plundered everything, and turned them into complete and utter shitholes. That's fair, their country, they can do what they like with it as long as it doesn't impact anyone else.

Therein lies the problem. They now want to get the hell out of the countries they effed up so they launch invasions, crawl across deserts, and stow away in wheel wells in order to come and live in the countries of the evil racist colonisers.

[Boac]

That's the last time I say 'Do drop in for tea'.

[OFSO]

Legal liability is interesting. The airport authorities for lax security I suspect. A bit of cleaning was necessary in the destination garden and given diseases prevalent in Africa, you wouldn't want to get any of the juice on you.

[ian16th]

The point of impact!

[llondel]

They might want to do an autopsy to determine whether it was the impact that killed him or whether he'd been dead from asphyxiation, or possibly even crushed by the wheels. If it was the impact then there could be a liability on the airline and the manufacturer for not providing a warning light in the gear bay to tell him to hold tight as the gear was about to be deployed.

[Boac]

Good one, llondel - you're not a lawyer are you?

[OFSO]

Should there not be a panic button in the wheel well so a stowaway feeling cold or faint from lack of food or O2, or needing a toilet, could alert the crew. Gross negligence that this is not fitted as standard. Also perhaps a comfy forward-facing fold-down seat.

[Pontius Navigator]

Should there not be a panic button in the wheel well so a stowaway feeling cold or faint from lack of food or O2, or needing a toilet, could alert the crew. Gross negligence that this is not fitted as standard. Also perhaps a comfy forward-facing fold-down seat.

Nice one. Better not suggest to Mr O'Leary might adopt that for extra revenue. And speed up arrivals too.