FT271


An escaped crocodile caused a plane crash on 25 August, killing 20 people. The internal flight in the Democratic Republic of Congo got into trouble when passengers stampeded in the cabin, throwing the Czech-made, twin-engined Let L-410 Turbojet off balance, the sole survivor told investigators. The crocodile survived the crash, only to be dispatched with a blow from a machete.

Danny Philemotte, 62, the Belgian (or Dutch) pilot and owner of the plane’s oper­ator, Filair, struggled in vain with the controls, with Chris Wilson, his 39-year-old first officer, from Shurdington, Gloucestershire. The plane was on a routine flight from Kinshasa to the regional airport of Bandundu. It crashed into a house a few hundred feet from its destin­ation. The occupants of the property were not in at the time.

A passenger had hidden the crocodile, which he planned to sell, in a big sports bag from which it escaped as the plane began its descent. The report of the incident said: “The terrified air hostess hurried towards the cockpit, followed by the passengers.” The plane was then sent off-balance “despite the desperate efforts of the pilot”. D.Tele­graph, D.Mail, 22 Oct 2010.



A baby died when a family of 12 leapt from a second (or third) floor balcony on 23 October, thinking they were fleeing the Devil. Eight more were injured, some seriously, when they jumped 20ft (6m) into a car park in the Paris suburb of La Verriere. The baffling incident began around 3am when one of the occupants, a 30-year-old man of African origin, heard his child crying, and got up to feed the child. His wife awoke to see him moving about naked and began screaming, “It’s the Devil! It’s the Devil!” The man ran into another room where 11 other adults and children were watching tele­vision. The man’s confused sister-in-law grabbed a knife and stabbed him in the hand before others pushed him out through the front door. When the man forced his way back in, they all began screaming in terror and leapt from the balcony shouting “Jesus! Jesus!” The naked man also leapt from the balcony. A four-month-old baby died in his mother’s arms, while a two-year-old girl was critically injured. Police say they found no evidence of hallucinogens or unusual religious rituals. Belfast Telegraph, 24 Oct; Sydney Morning Herald, Canberra Times, 25 Oct 2010.



A 75-year-old man died after accidentally triggering a booby trap he had set up in his house near Quebec City. Jos Lawrence Potvin had rigged a rifle to a string that ran across the floor of his bedroom to protect his home from thieves. The police found his body on 21 October. It appeared he had been preparing a meal when he set off the trap by mistake. [CP] (Toronto) Globe and Mail, 23 Oct 2010.



Antoine Denis, 66, a retired painter and decorator, was found lying on his back in the bedroom of his flat in Chatham, Kent, on 9 January 2010. Detectives at the scene declared the father of four dead, but found nothing that suggested a crime had been committed, even though the front door was ajar. It was only when undertakers arrived to remove the body that they found blood and a 4.7in (12cm) knife stuck up to the hilt in his back. A spokesman for Medway Police said one officer was “spoken to about procedural issues and no further action was taken”. At the inquest in October, the coroner criticised the police handling of the unsolved murder and recorded a verdict of unlawful killing from a single stab wound. D.Telegraph, Sun, Metro, 12 Oct 2010.



Miguel Vargas, 44, was beheaded when a rope around his neck was dragged into a wood chipper. He was part of a five-man crew trimming trees on a suburban street in Tampa, Florida. A rope used by one of his colleagues somehow slipped over his neck while he was feeding branches into the chipper. He desperately fought to avoid being pulled into the machine, but couldn’t reach the emergency shut-off button. The noose tightened around his neck and pulled his head from his body. Telegraph.co.uk, 27 Sept; Sun, 28 Sept 2010.



Kevin Kirkland, 44, from Newport, Shropshire, died on 30 December 2009 after tying himself naked to a tree. He was found with a rope around his penis and wrists. An inquest in Telford was told the computer engineer had injured his wrists in a desperate attempt to free himself. Death was caused by hypothermia and blood loss. Sun, 10 Aug 2010.



A 210lb (95kg) pig in Kerkakutas, Hungary, bit its owner to death on 11 August when he tried to separate it from its food for a health check in its sty. The giant porker severed an artery in 29-year-old farmer Imre Kovac’s leg and he bled to death in less then five minutes. Austrian Times, 12 Aug 2010.