LAHORE: In a most bizarre instance, a mysterious young man fell off an aeroplane and crashed onto the rooftop of a house in North Cantonment, witnesses and police said.

Although the incident took place on Thursday, the baffled investigators spent the whole of Friday unsuccessfully trying to solve the puzzle. Their focus was on aviation officials.

The body of the man was found on the roof of a house in Al Faysal Town which belonged to Haji Afzal, a former PTCL official. The deceased had suffered multiple fractures, said Ali, a witness, who gave 9.30 pm on Thursday as the time of the fall.

Residents of the area said they had heard a loud thud and believed that the sound and the condition the body was found in could only have been caused by a fall from a considerable height.

SHO Rana Irham said that according to circumstantial evidence, the young man, who was yet to be identified, “may have fallen from a Dubai-bound cargo plane from a height of 700 feet or more”.

An official of the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) said it appeared to be a case of gross negligence on the part of airport employees and an attempt to send the man abroad illegally.

“It appears that the man tried to stow away in the landing gear before the plane took off,” he said, adding that this could not happen without the involvement of airport employees.

The SHO said the incident took place moments after a cargo plane took off from Allama Iqbal International Airport for Dubai.

Haji Afzal, from whose house the body was found, said he was watching TV with his family when he heard a bang on the roof.

“Hearing the big thud, my neighbours came out of their homes,” he told

Dawn. “Everyone believed that there had been a crash of some sorts and the rooftop was the point of impact. I rushed upstairs to find a young man lying in a pool of blood.”

Ali, who lives in the house next to Haji Afzal's, called police. They reached the place after 15 minutes. He confirmed that the man had a broken skull and jaw.