SHANGHAI, China (AP) — Two people described as foreigners were killed Thursday when they fell out of a flying airplane as it prepared to land in Shanghai, the government said.
The two crawled out of the plane’s luggage hold and fell from the undercarriage of Flight AF112 from Paris to Shanghai, the official Xinhua News Agency said, citing a preliminary investigation by police officials. AF112 was an Air France flight from Paris, the airline confirmed.
The unidentified people fell onto a house in the Laoxiang neighborhood of Shanghai’s Nanhui District, Xinhua said. It was unclear if anyone on the ground was injured.
Shanghai police started an investigation immediately after the plane landed at Pudong International Airport at 11:05 a.m., an hour later than its scheduled arrival.
Officials did not immediately identify the two foreigners or release their nationalities. One police officer said police asked for help from a foreign consulate in Shanghai to help identify the dead, but he refused to say which country’s consulate or provide other details.
Air France’s Shanghai spokeswoman, Zhuang Ying, confirmed that two people had fallen from an airplane and said police believe it was the Air France flight.
“The police haven’t made their final conclusions. They’re still investigating,” Zhuang said. “There were several airplanes in the sky at that moment.”
Shanghai’s police and city government offices confirmed the deaths but would not comment further, saying the active investigation prevented them from releasing any information.
All passengers from the plane’s main cabin left the plane safely, Xinhua said. Zhuang said every ticketed passenger on Flight AF112 was accounted for in Shanghai by the airline, suggesting the two may have stowed away.
The aircraft was held at the airport while the investigation continued, Xinhua said. Zhuang said Air France canceled Flight 111, which was scheduled to return to Paris on Thursday afternoon using the same aircraft.
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Some very sad news. 🙁
By: KabirT - 27th January 2003 at 15:40
RE: To die after plumeting from AF airliner.
But this is not the first time…two men were found dead in the undercarriage of Air India B747 when it landed at LHR.
By: Ren Frew - 27th January 2003 at 12:50
RE: To die after plumeting from AF airliner.
I’ve worked in temperatures up to -25 and that was no picnic fully wrapped up in thermals etc. You’ve no chance at all in an undercarriage at those altitudes. People must be utterly desperate to even think about trying it. You’d have a better chance holding up a bank for the money to buy a ticket !!!
By: wysiwyg - 27th January 2003 at 12:31
RE: To die after plumeting from AF airliner.
30 to 40 degrees below zero – and the rest! At this time of year it can get down to -60.
By: A330Crazy - 26th January 2003 at 22:10
RE: To die after plumeting from AF airliner.
Air France Deaths in Shanghai Still a Mystery
A day after two men plunged from an Air France jet and crashed into a small village in Nanhui District, police in Shanghai are still being tight-lipped about who the men are, and how they ended up in the under-carriage of a Boeing 777.
The plane involved in the incident was allowed to take off and return to Paris yesterday after canceling a flight on Thursday due to the police investigation.
Air France says it is no longer involved in the investigation.
“So far we have had no information from Paris about how the two men got into the plane,” said airline spokeswoman Zhuang Ying.
“It seems like they planed to stow away as they were not ticketed passengers on that flight,” she added.
Airline experts said the two men must have died during the 10-and-a-half hour journey from France, not as a result of their fall, which saw one man crash through the roof of a small house while the other landed in a nearby orchard.
Fan Ru, a pilot for China Eastern Airlines, said the men could not have survived a lengthy trip in the plane’s undercarriage.
“When planes fly high the temperature in the undercarriage during the journey is about 30 to 40 degrees Celsius below zero,” Fan told Shanghai Daily yesterday. “No human being can survive in this condition for a long journey.”
Fan also said a lack of oxygen and low air pressure would also kill the men, even if they survived the cold temperatures.
According to several witnesses, the bodies of the two foreigners were visibly frostbitten when they were found on the ground.
But witness accounts vary. Some people said both men were dressed in black, including their sneakers.
A few local reports, however, said they were wearing red coats that resembled airport uniforms. One man, according to some witnesses, was holding something that looked like a walkie-talkie.
“It’s so frightening. I could not fall asleep,” said Ding Xiaolin, 80, who was cooking in her kitchen minutes before a body fell through the roof and landed beside her.
News taken from http://fpeng.peopledaily.com.cn/200301/26/eng20030126_110778.shtml
By: wysiwyg - 25th January 2003 at 09:00
RE: To die after plumeting from AF airliner.
I’m with Selsport. They can only have been in the wheelwell not the cargo hold. There is no route between the two. If there were it would allow fire to spread much too easily. Misinformed journalists adding their own spin again!
By: Selsport69 - 24th January 2003 at 21:32
RE: To die after plumeting from AF airliner.
Sounds like that they had frozen to death and just fell out when the under carrige came down. Not nice I know but some people will never learn that staying in the undercarriage is no hotel
By: yago - 24th January 2003 at 19:29
RE: To die after plumeting from AF airliner.
From Shanghai to Paris ????
The other way round would make sense but this ???
If they were illegal immigrants in France who wanted to get back to their country, no doubt the French police would have they put them in a plane and I doubt they were French illegal immigrants in China…
Weird.
By: T5 - 24th January 2003 at 13:56
RE: To die after plumeting from AF airliner.
Perhaps they were stowaways who just wanted to put an end to it all, so they may have done it deliberately rather than just fallen.
By: KabirT - 24th January 2003 at 13:39
RE: To die after plumeting from AF airliner.
Yes it was in the papers today…..the question is why did they do it and how the hell did they manage to jump of a flying plane??
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January 24, 2003 at 1:03 pm