Air France Deaths in Shanghai Still a Mystery

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Sunday, January 26, 2003

Air France Deaths in Shanghai Still a Mystery

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A day after two men plunged from an Air France jet and crashed into a small village in Nanhui District, police in Shanghai are still being tight-lipped about who the men are, and how they ended up in the under-carriage of a Boeing 777.

The plane involved in the incident was allowed to take off and return to Paris yesterday after canceling a flight on Thursday due to the police investigation.

Air France says it is no longer involved in the investigation.

"So far we have had no information from Paris about how the two men got into the plane," said airline spokeswoman Zhuang Ying.

"It seems like they planed to stow away as they were not ticketed passengers on that flight," she added.

Airline experts said the two men must have died during the 10-and-a-half hour journey from France, not as a result of their fall, which saw one man crash through the roof of a small house while the other landed in a nearby orchard.

Fan Ru, a pilot for China Eastern Airlines, said the men could not have survived a lengthy trip in the plane's undercarriage.

"When planes fly high the temperature in the undercarriage during the journey is about 30 to 40 degrees Celsius below zero," Fan told Shanghai Daily yesterday. "No human being can survive in this condition for a long journey."

Fan also said a lack of oxygen and low air pressure would also kill the men, even if they survived the cold temperatures.

According to several witnesses, the bodies of the two foreigners were visibly frostbitten when they were found on the ground.

But witness accounts vary. Some people said both men were dressed in black, including their sneakers.

A few local reports, however, said they were wearing red coats that resembled airport uniforms. One man, according to some witnesses, was holding something that looked like a walkie-talkie.

"It's so frightening. I could not fall asleep," said Ding Xiaolin, 80, who was cooking in her kitchen minutes before a body fell through the roof and landed beside her.

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