Body parts fall from SA aeroplane

Parts of the body fell as the flight lowered its wheels for landing

Parts of a man's body have fallen onto a New York home from a South African Airways aeroplane as it approached John F Kennedy airport.

A leg, with a shoe, and part of the torso fell into a woman's garden, making "a very loud bang".

Police believe the man stowed onto the flight when it landed in Senegal.

More human remains were found in the aircraft's wheel-well, which is not heated or pressurised, so chances of surviving a long flight are negligible.

'Charred'

"The remains of a human body was discovered upon landing in New York. We presume this person got on board in Dakar," said SAA's Onkgopotse Tabane.

The body parts fell onto Pam Hearne's garage and then landed on the grass.

"It was very blackened, as if it had been charred," she said, New York's Daily News newspaper reports.

Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Jim Peters told AP news agency that the plane would have started lowering its landing gear over Ms Hearne's home in Long Island, some eight kilometres from the airport.

It appears the body was crushed by the wheel mechanism as it opened its gears.

"I am very glad I live where I do, so I don't have to run for my life like this man probably was doing," Ms Hearne said, AP reports.

SAA say the return flight to Dakar and Johannesburg has been delayed in order to repair the minor damage to the aircraft.