LONDON — The suburban stillness of the
comfortable, two-story homes in west London’s Mortlake neighborhood is
broken only by the roar of jets thundering overhead on the final
approach to Heathrow Airport. It’s a pleasant place, with easy
connections into central London, generally free of crime and congestion.
That changed early on a sunny Sunday morning in September when a man
from Africa literally fell from the sky and landed with a loud thud onto
the sidewalk of Portman Avenue, half a block from a convenience store,
an upscale lingerie boutique, and a shop selling Chinese herbal
remedies.
In the hours after the crumpled body was found, as early risers were
getting up to walk their dogs, get the papers, or go to church, police
thought the man was a murder victim. But it was soon determined that he
had been a stowaway who fell from a passenger plane when it lowered its
landing gear directly above Portman Avenue.
“It was scary, there was a body on the street, and nobody knew at
first that he had fallen from a plane,” neighbor Stephanie Prudhomme
said. “There were police everywhere.”
The identity of the man remains a mystery three months later. He
carried no identification, but police believe he may have been from
Angola. They are asking the public to help identify the man, whose death
has traumatized the neighborhood.
Some heard the noise on impact; others were alarmed when they opened
their doors and saw a crumpled badly disfigured body lying on the
street. Some didn’t know anything was amiss until the police and an
ambulance arrived, followed by homicide detectives.
Police came to believe the man stowed away on a passenger jet bound
from the African nation of Angola to London, only to die en route and
then fall when the landing gear opened — an occurrence that is rare but
not unheard of.
“There is great sadness,” said Catherine Lambert, who lives a few
doors down from the spot where the man landed. “To think that the end of
the line for him is a suburban street, miles away from his world.”
The event shattered the neighborhood’s sense of being immune from the
world’s troubles, she said, a feeling compounded by the inability of
police to identify the man.
“I felt, what was he running away from? What made him think he could
survive? And how will his family ever know? He’s a lost soul now; his
father and mother are probably waiting for him to make contact,” said
Lambert, 41.
Frustrated police have released a composite electronic image of what
they believe the man’s face looked like before his fall, as well as a
photo of a tattoo on his left arm, in hopes that he may be identified.
Based on circumstantial evidence, including some currency found in
his jeans pocket, they believe he may have been from Angola, but
discussions with Angolan authorities have not provided useful clues.