伦敦街头“天降”男尸吓坏居民

A stowaway fell thousands of feet from a plane on to a quiet suburban street after apparently hiding in the landing gear.

A stowaway fell thousands of feet from a plane on to a quiet suburban street after apparently hiding in the landing gear.

The body of the victim, in his thirties and from North Africa, was discovered in an affluent London neighbourhood under the Heathrow flight path.

Aviation experts say he was probably dead before he hit the ground either because he had been crushed by the retracting landing gear shortly after the plane took off or because of the extreme cold at high altitude.

It is thought the man’s body dropped from the aircraft undercarriage as the plane came in to land.

Residents on the tree-lined road in Mortlake, on the south bank of the Thames less than ten miles from the airport, yesterday spoke of their shock on finding the body after hearing a loud bang.

Billy Watson, 26, a security guard who lives opposite where the man fell, said he saw the body ‘all twisted up’.

He said: ‘It is unbelievable. The first thing I thought when I saw the body was that it must have fallen from quite a height.

‘You could tell by the way his body was mangled. There was a big pool of blood coming from his head.’

Richard Taylor, of the Civil Aviation Authority, said a stowaway in an aircraft undercarriage was unlikely to have survive as he would either be crushed by the wheels after take-off or freeze in temperatures as low as minus 40C .

He said: ‘The chances of survival for a stowaway are very slim, particularly in the recess of the landing gear. I don’t know of anyone who has survived being stowed away on a long-haul flight.

Police said they were investigating whether the body was that of a stowaway.’

The discovery comes just over a fortnight after the body of a stowaway was found in the landing gear recess of a BA plane arriving at Heathrow from Cape Town.

(Read by CJ Henderson. CJ Henderson is a journalist at the China Daily Website.)

双语资讯

(Agencies)

英国某条安静的郊区街道近日从数千英尺的高空“天降”男尸，看起来死者是一名藏在飞机起落架上的偷渡者。

这名死者来自北非，现年30多岁，事发地点位于富裕的伦敦郊区，处于希思罗机场航线下方。

航空专家认为，该男子在落地之前已经死亡，死于飞机起飞后不久起落架收起时的挤压，或者高空的极寒。

据称，飞机着陆的过程中，该男子的尸体从起落架上掉落。

莫特莱克位于泰晤士河南岸，距离希思罗机场不到10英里。这里的街道树木成排，居民谈到，昨天街头突然一声巨响，然后看到这名男子横尸街头，感到非常震惊。

26岁的保安比利•沃森说，看到尸体已经“完全扭曲”了。他居住在男子坠落地点的对面。

他说：“简直令人难以置信。我一看到尸体就觉得一定是从高空掉下来的。”

“尸体整个扭曲着，头上还流出一大滩血。”

英国民用航空局的理查德•泰勒认为，藏在飞机起落架上的偷渡者没有机会幸存，有可能在飞机起飞后受起落架的挤压，或者难耐高空零下40度的极寒。

他说：“偷渡者生还的可能性非常小，尤其是藏身在起落架上。我还没听过能够幸免于长途旅行的偷渡者。”

警察已经对此事展开调查，以确定该男子是不是偷渡者。

两周前，英国航空公司一架从开普敦飞往希思罗机场的航班起落架隐蔽处也曾发现一具偷渡者尸体。

Vocabulary:

stowaway: 偷渡者

landing gear: 起落架

undercarriage: 飞机起落架

recess: 凹处，深处，隐蔽处