2 bodies found in Britain believed to be jet stowaways from Cuba
BY YVES COLON
British investigators are trying to determine if two men -- possibly
Cubans --
whose bodies fell onto the English countryside had hidden themselves
in the
wheel well of a British Airways jet before it left Havana.
One body was found Christmas Eve on a Surrey farm, and the other
fell from a
Mexico-bound Boeing 777 as it took off from London's Gatwick
Airport on
Christmas Day.
``We're looking at the likelihood that both men had stowed away
on the same
aircraft from Havana,'' said Chris Oswick, a spokesman for the
Sussex Police
Department.
A post-mortem examination showed that the men, one of whom was
carrying
Cuban currency, died because of the sub-zero temperatures and
lack of oxygen
in the wheel compartment as the plane flew at 35,000 feet. Both
men appeared to
be in their early 20s.
Oswick said investigators spent Thursday inspecting the plane
. A team will fly to
Havana next week to seek Cuban authorities' help in identifying
the men.
``It's going to take time because it's not a straightforward identification,''
he said.
``We're going through the usual channels. I'm not sure of our
relations with Cuba,
but it clearly involves the need for us to coordinate at international
level. It's not a
matter of knocking on someone's door and checking people's identification.
``Anyone who seeks to leave that way must be fairly desperate,''
he said.
``They're unlikely to advertise their identity.''
The first body was found by farm workers in an 80-acre field at
Rudgwick on the
West Sussex-Surrey border. The location of the field, directly
beneath the main
flight path into Gatwick and Heathrow airports, suggested that
the body had fallen
as the plane lowered its wheels to land.
The second body was seen falling several hundred feet onto a runway
as the
British Airways flight, with 300 passengers, took off.
This report was supplemented by Herald wire services.