The body of a suspected stowaway aboard a Kenya Airways plane that plummeted to the ground in London on Sunday afternoon landed just three feet away from a sunbathing resident in Clapham.
The person fell from the plane as it was lowering the landing gear in preparation for touching down at Heathrow Airport.
A friend of the sunbathing tenant told The Sun: "He was so lucky not to be hit and killed. The impact obliterated the body."
The sunbather, who is in his 20s, was lying down sleeping in the garden when the migrant's body fell from the undercarriage of the Boeing 787 aircraft.
The impact in the garden was so forceful that it left a large crater in the garden and smashed their garden path to pieces.
The sunbather's friend, who was in the house at the time of the incident, continued: "He didn't even realise what it was to begin with. He was asleep and then there was a huge impact.
"The body literally landed one metre away from him and was obliterated. My friend was very shaken.
"There were a few of us in the house at the time and it was lucky only one of us was in the garden.
"Nobody would have survived being hit. The impact was horrific."
Since the incident, the sunbather has moved temporarily from the £2.3m rented house to stay with his parents for a while.
A neighbour said: "I heard a whomp so I went to look out the window. At first I thought it was a tramp asleep.
"I had a closer look. I saw there was blood all over the walls of the garden and his head was not in a good way.
"I spoke to Heathrow and they said this happens once every five years. There was a previous man who was frozen and this one, he was like an ice block."
The force made by the impact made it difficult for police to identify whether the person was a man or a woman.
It is also not known whether the person was alive or dead at the time of the fall, although they would have had to spend nine hours in a low oxygen environment enduring temperatures of -60C whilst the aeroplane was in flight.
The Kenya Airways flight passed over the house at around 15:30pm on Sunday at about 3,500 feet and travelling at 200mph.
A police statement issued after the incident read: "A bag, water and some food were discovered in the landing gear compartment once it landed at the airport.
"Enquiries continue, led by the South Central Command Unit and the Met's Aviation Policing Command. Officers will be liaising with the airline and international authorities."
The death is not being treated as suspicious but enquiries are underway to ascertain the full circumstances.
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