An apparent attempt at human trafficking went horribly wrong when a man died after falling out of a cargo plane shortly after takeoff here, officials and local residents said Saturday.
Mohammed Afzal, a resident of the Al-Faysal Town, near the airport, was watching TV with his family when he heard something fall on the roof around 9.30 pm Friday. “I rushed upstairs and found a dead man,” he said.
Neighbourhood residents gathered at his home after this “very unusual” incident, Mr Afzal said. The police came and took the body to the morgue.
Police officer Rana Irhaam said: “The circumstantial evidence suggests that the man, believed to be in his 20s, fell from a considerable height. Our initial investigations suggest he fell from a cargo plane from not less than 700 feet after it took off.”
Doctors at the morgue confirmed that all parts of the unidentified man’s body were “badly smashed”, Mr Irhaam said.
A civil aviation authority official said the incident occurred minutes after a cargo flight took off for Dubai.
“It was probably a case of human smuggling. Someone in the airport helped the unfortunate young man to stow away in the cargo plane,” he said.