Man's leg lands in yard Police suspect remains are from airline stowaway
FLORAL PARK, New York (AP) -- The body of an apparent stowaway was ripped in half during flight Tuesday and his leg crashed into a suburban neighborhood, where a homeowner found the severed limb in the middle of her lawn, authorities said.
Pam Hearne heard "a loud crash" and later was stunned to see a foot clad in an Adidas sneaker and a sock in her yard, said Officer Thomas Blanchard. The leg, with hip and spine attached, dented the shingled roof of her garage before bouncing into the lawn.
Police suspect the remains are from a stowaway who may have been crushed as the South African Airways jet lowered its landing gear on its approach to Kennedy Airport.
Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Jim Peters said the pilot of flight 203 would have probably started lowering the plane's landing gear in the sky over the home in Floral Park, about 5 miles from the airport.
Peters said a Customs agent that met the flight at the airport found another leg hanging from the wheel well.
The airline said in a statement that the flight landed with "no impact" on the passengers and crew and it was working closely with authorities to investigate how someone may have stowed away.
The flight originated in Johannesburg, and made one stop in Senegal. Authorities had not identified the remains, which were hauled away from Hearne's yard in a plastic bag.
Hearne, a special education teacher, said that when she first saw the leg in the grass, "it didn't look real."
"But I am very glad that I live where I do," she said, "so I don't have to run for my life like this man probably was doing."
There have been cases of stowaways being crushed by the mechanism in aircraft wheel wells and perishing from the extreme cold at high altitude.
I heard about that on the radio. What a terrible way to die....your body spread out on different peoples yards...
"I was on the sideline and guys were talking about the score, and then it hit me -- we won by 21. I came in the locker room and I yelled it out, and immediately I just kind of broke down in tears. Because I miss Sean, you know."
SkinsChic wrote:Ewwwwwwwwwww....I saw this Taz....can you imagine finding that in your front yard ???
I tried growing them one year (in between the petunias), but I just could never get the ankles to bloom quite right (and they got a bit "leggy"). So I gave up.
If men can run the world, why can't they stop wearing neckties? How intelligent is it to start the day by tying a little noose around your neck?
