BA stowaway falls to death in London after 8,000-mile flight

A stowaway who is believed to have clung onto a British Airways flight from South Africa has fallen to his death in London, while another man survived the journey and is being treated in hospital.

The two men are thought to have found their way into the plane's undercarriage at Johannesburg airport, before embarking on an 8,000-mile overnight flight to London.

The body of one young man was discovered on the roof of the online gift shop notonthehighstreet.com in Richmond, directly under the flight path to Heathrow Airport.

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The plane would have been travelling at an altitude of around 1,400 feet when it passed over the area, reports The Guardian.

A spokesman for the shop told the Daily Telegraph that "early indications are that the body may be that of an airline stowaway" but refused to comment further.

Another man, believed to be in his mid-twenties, was found unconscious in the undercarriage of the plane after it landed and was rushed to hospital. He is said to be in a critical condition.

The identities of the two men have not yet been confirmed and an investigation into the death is ongoing, said the Metropolitan Police.

Stowaways do not often survive long journey at high altitudes. "This is extremely unusual," David Learmont, consultant editor of Flight Global magazine, told the London Evening Standard.

"The temperatures we are talking about are between minus 50C and minus 70C and you are higher than Everest so there is not a lot of air to breathe. This is extraordinary."

British Airways said it was working with British and South African authorities to establish the facts "surrounding this very rare case".

Ellie Roberts, who works in a nearby pub in Richmond, said the local community was in shock. "I live in East Sheen and a stowaway once fell from a plane into my road. If you are on the flight path it does sometimes happen but I can't believe this has happened so close to me twice," she said.

"That poor man must have been so desperate to go to those lengths to get to Britain."