"Foreigners" Fall from Air France Plane in PVG
Two Foreigners Fall From Plane in China
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 9:01 a.m. ET
SHANGHAI, China (AP) -- Two people described as foreigners were killed Thursday when they fell out of an airplane as it prepared to land in Shanghai, the government said.
The two crawled out of the plane's luggage hold and toppled from the undercarriage of Flight AF112 from Paris to Shanghai, the official Xinhua News Agency said, citing a preliminary investigation by police officials. AF112 was an Air France flight from Paris, the airline said.
The unidentified people fell onto a house in the Laoxiang neighborhood of Shanghai's Nanhui District, Xinhua said. It was not clear if anyone on the ground was injured.
Officials did not immediately identify the two foreigners or release their nationalities.
Shanghai police started an investigation after the plane landed at Pudong International Airport at 11:05 a.m., an hour later than its scheduled arrival.
They confirmed the deaths, but refused to provide any details, citing the ongoing investigation.
An Air France spokeswoman in Shanghai, Zhuang Ying, confirmed that two people had fallen from an airplane.
"The police haven't made their final conclusions. They're still investigating,'' she said. "There were several airplanes in the sky at that moment.''
All passengers from the plane's main cabin left the plane safely, Xinhua said. Zhuang said every ticketed passenger on Flight AF112 was accounted for in Shanghai by the airline, suggesting the two may have stowed away.
The aircraft was held at the airport while the investigation continued, Xinhua said. Zhuang said Air France canceled Flight 111, which was scheduled to return to Paris on Thursday afternoon using the same aircraft.