Headless body of an African stowaway was found in an office block air conditioning unit after plummeting 1,400ft from the undercarriage of a jet landing at Heathrow
- Carlito Vale was still alive when he fell 1,400 ft to his death from plane
- The man, believed to be 29, was in undercarriage of a British Airways flight
- He plummeted to death when it opened as jet prepared to land at Heathrow
- Employees found him decapitated inside building's air conditioning unit
A decapitated stowaway was found in an air conditioning unit of an office block after he fell from a jet coming into land at Heathrow, an inquest heard.
Carlito Vale, believed to be 29, was still alive when he plummeted 1,400 ft to his death when the undercarriage of a British Airways flight opened.
The orphan from Mozambique had hidden on the aircraft for the 8,000-mile journey from Johannesburg to Heathrow on June 18 last year.
The jet was passing over west London when the wheel wells of the landing gear opened, dropping Mr Vale on top of a building used by the online shopping company, Notonthehighstreet.com, in Kew Road, Richmond.
Flight data showed the plane was at an altitude of around 1,400ft when it passed over the area where Mr Vale's body was found.
Carlito Vale, pictured with wife - the orphan from Mozambique had hidden on the aircraft for an 8,000-mile journey from Johannesburg to Heathrow
Forensic police officers on the roof of Notonthehighstreet.com's building in Richmond after the body was found
Another stowaway who was on the same flight survived but has since disappeared.
An inquest into Mr Vale's death at West London Coroner's Court heard his body was discovered in the shattered housing of an air conditioning unit after staff complained about the heat.
Facilities manager at Notinthehighstree.com, Michael Bentley, went to investigate the fault to see if the system was blocked and made the gruesome discovery at around 9.25am.
A statement from Mr Bentley was read by coroner Kally Cheema at West London Coroner's Court today.
It said: 'At around 8.44am I received an email from colleagues claiming the air was stuffy and that they were falling asleep at their desks.
I went up to the roof to check the air conditioning unit. I saw what I can only describe as a bone sticking out of the smashed aluminium.
'At that point I thought I really hope that's not a body up there as it could only have come from a plane.
'I Iooked in and saw a foot, then a leg, then saw it was a human face down inside the unit.
'I emailed my manager and said "I think I've found a body on the roof", he said "what do you mean?"'
'I said "no jokes, there's a body up there".'
A statement by his boss Jason Weston read: 'I would describe the body as wearing some sort of Converse trainers, I only saw one foot and a leg that was wearing some sort of blue or grey trousers.
Carlito Vale, believed to be 29, was still alive when he plummet 1,400 ft to his death when the undercarriage of a British Airways flight opened
Mr Vale's body was discovered on top of the offices of NotOnTheHighStreet.com (pictured) on Kew Road in Richmond, south-west London
A stowaway was found dead on an office block roof after plunging from a British Airways plane (file picture)
'All I could see was lumps of matter and bones that had smashed the metal housing of the air conditioning unit.'
The first officer at the scene PCSO Gunnie Mooneesawmy she said in a statement: 'I got onto the roof via the skylight.
'I was directed to the aluminium box at the end where I could see lots of blood and body parts and two human legs stuck up in the air.'
Investigating officer Inspector Steve Lemon, said: 'When I got to the roof I saw a gentleman's lifeless body in the air conditioning unit.
'It appeared the body had fallen from the sky at great height.
'Due to the height it had fallen and the force on the landing the body was completely decapitated and had smashed through the metal panels.
'There were no other buildings at that height and no other way for him to get up there as the security door was intact.
'There was no identification on the body.
'Colleagues at Heathrow Airport informed me there was a stowaway found in the landing gear of BA flight 056 that landed at 5.20am from Johannesburg and he was in a critical condition.'
When I got to the roof I saw a gentleman's lifeless body in the air conditioning unit
Investigating officer Steve Lemon
A bag with a Mozambique passport and an out-of-date US visa found in a bag left at Johannesburg airport helped to identify Mr Vale.
From that information Mr Vale's daughter was tracked down in Mozambique and DNA taken from the remains and a shirt in the bag confirmed his ID.
Authorities also made contact with an orphanage in his home town of Beira, Mozambique's second city, to confirm his identity.
Mr Vale is believed to have been born in 1986, and was among thousands of children taken in by the orphanage after civil war ravaged the southern African country.
It is believed he had travelled from Uganda to South Africa and was trying to contact a friend in the Netherlands before attempting to get to Britain.
Another man, aged 24, who stowed away with Mr Vale managed to survive the journey after being found in a 'critical condition' in the plane's undercarriage, but it is not known where he is now.
A postmortem carried out by pathologist Dr Michael Heath found that Mr Vale was 'well nourished' and that the cause of death was 'multiple injuries'.
Senior coroner Kally Cheema recorded a verdict of accidental death.
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