Body found in landing gear of plane at Gatwick

The body of a man has been found in the landing gear of a plane which landed at Gatwick Airport from Morocco.

Emergency services were called after the discovery was made in the undercarriage of an Air Arabia flight which arrived from Tangier at about 11.45 BST on Tuesday.

A spokesperson for the West Sussex airport confirmed the incident, adding that its teams have been supporting both the police and HM Coroner with their inquiries.

Sussex Police said it had launched an investigation into what had happened, while Air Arabia has been contacted for comment.

A spokesperson for the West Sussex airport said: "A body was found and our teams subsequently supported Sussex Police and the coroner.

"Our thoughts are with everyone affected."

A similar incident occurred at Gatwick in December 2022, when a man's body was found in the undercarriage of a Tui flight which had travelled from Banjul, The Gambia's capital.

The 2,760-mile (4,444 km) journey from The Gambia to the UK usually takes about six and a half hours on a direct flight, and a spokesperson for The Gambia's government said the man was an unidentified black male.

There have been several further cases of aeroplane stowaways being found dead in the UK, including Mohammed Ayaz, 21, from Pakistan, whose body was found in the car park of a DIY store, near Heathrow Airport, in 2001.

Four years earlier, another stowaway fell from a Heathrow-bound plane on to a nearby gasworks.

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