Although it depends on your perspective as to whether the idea of the world operating at random is comforting or horrifying, the fact remains that something completely unexpected could happen at any time.
Although there are logical explanations for why machines suddenly explode or why hot climates can suddenly experience massive hail storms, those explanations usually aren’t clear to those going through these incidents.
RELATED STORIES
And as one tragic case from the U.K. demonstrates, not even the classic “what if” scenario of someone literally falling out of the sky is impossible.
Although it’s quiet on the ground, Offteron Road in Clapham, England is the site of a lot of bustle overhead.
According to the BBC , the road lies underneath a major “highway” for aircraft on their way to London’s Heathrow airport, which means that residents can hear them pass by as often as every 30 seconds.
One of these planes was a Kenya Airways flight that had departed from Nairobi on Sunday.
As far as the flight crew would’ve been able to tell, the eight hour and 50 minute flight went smoothly and without incident as there was no damage to the aircraft by the time it reached its destination.
However, what they didn’t know was that as the plane neared its destination, something horrible had unfolded on board.
As a plane spotter was able to track via an app on his phone, a man’s body (not pictured) had fallen from the plane and landed in someone’s backyard at Offerton Road.
As the BBC reported the body remained largely intact upon landing because the deceased had been frozen solid while falling.
Although this plane spotter noticed the fall as it was happening, it came as a horrific surprise to residents.
One anonymous witness told the BBC that he looked outside of an upstairs window after hearing a “whomp” sound and saw both the man and heavy blood stains on the walls surrounding the yard.
Another man (not pictured) had been sunbathing only three feet away from the point of impact when the body fell.
The witness mentioned above saw this man leave the area when he came outside and recalled that the sunbather seemed very shaken.
As the witness said, “If it had been two seconds later, he would have landed on the common where there were hundreds of people – my kids were in the garden 15 minutes before.”
Police said they are not treating the death as suspicious and believe that the deceased was a stowaway on the plane.
This was because they had discovered water, food and a bag in the landing gear compartment.
Their conclusion was confirmed when the witness called London Heathrow and was told that they see stowaway incidents of this nature once about every five years.
Although police are still conducting a post-mortem investigation, authorities in Kenya are looking into how the deceased got on the plane in the first place.
The incident has led some Kenyans to call the security of Nairobi’s Jomo Kenyatta International Airport into question, which has become an important matter in recent years.
This is because potential threats from a militant group from Somalia called al-Shabab has prompted the Kenya Airports Authority to put the airport on high alert and run regular security drills since November of 2018.
And so, the KAA has assembled a team to investigate how the stowaway managed to bypass the airport’s heightened security.
As a representative from Kenya Airways said, “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.”
h/t: BBC
