Aviation security under scrutiny after death of stowaway in London

There have been calls for fresh scrutiny of aviation security as efforts continue to identify a man whose frozen body fell into a garden in London from the landing gear of a Kenya Airways plane.

Investigations have centered on Nairobi airport, where the man is believed to have concealed himself in the aircraft, but one aviation expert suggested airlines and plane manufacturers could take steps including fitting heat sensors to detect stowaways.

A bag, water and some food were discovered in the landing gear compartment after the flight arrived at Heathrow on Sunday. The man’s body was found in a garden in Clapham, south London, shortly before 3.40pm that day.

A postmortem is due to be carried out on the body, which was said by a neighbour to have landed a metre away from a resident who had been sunbathing.

A plane spotter who had been following the flight on an aircraft tracking app saw the body fall and arrived at the scene in time to give this information to the police.

A neighbour told the Guardian she and her husband had heard a noise but thought at first it was collapsing scaffolding, before they learned what had happened and saw the man’s remains.

“We need to be grateful that no one on the ground was killed or hurt, but I think that the real focus now needs to be on why this man was so desperate that he felt that he had to do this,” she said, adding that police had told her that the body was frozen to the touch.

“If someone can secrete themselves into the landing gear then it would seem possible that they can put in other things,” said Baum, who added that stowaways often waited until an aircraft was taxiing to the runway before climbing in, rather than doing so at the departure gate.

“But it’s all very well to point the finger at Nairobi, which actually has some stringent security measures in place. I do think that there are other measures that could be taken, such as fitting heat sensors inside the wheel wells to detect the heat from human bodies,” he said.

Jomo Kenyatta airport in Nairobi, which has direct British Airways and Virgin flights to and from the UK, is based in a suburb near the business district.

Passengers must go through at least three tiers of security before reaching their planes, not including the large perimeter fence that encloses the airport. A first point of entry is a security screening yard some distance from the terminal, where passengers must alight from their vehicles and pass through a metal detector.

After a winding road of about 2.5 miles (4km), passengers enter a second security check at their respective terminals, this time with their luggage. Finally, after checking in, they are directed to a body scan and carry-on security check.