This archive report was first published on 4 July 2019.
On June 30, a stowaway fell off a Kenya Airways plane as it descended at Heathrow Airport in London, England, sparking outrage and calls for better airport security.
The incident has led to a heated debate about the insensitive headline published by The Times of London, which read: 'Sunbather nearly hit by falling body is Oxford graduate.'
Media analysts have slammed the newspaper for focusing on trivialities, including the sunbather's education and course of study at Oxford University.
Journalists have also accused the paper of intruding into the privacy of the sunbather, who was left traumatized by the incident.
As one Twitter user, Hannah Jane Parkinson, noted: 'genuinely speechless pic.twitter.com/kJ5blBQjLY '
Another user, Rob Williams, added: 'Pretty much everything that’s wrong with this country in a Times headline. pic.twitter.com/FfjFeG4Q2N '
John Allan Namu, a celebrated Kenyan journalist, noted that the headline writer had chosen to ignore the life that was lost.
He said: 'Of course, to this paper, a falling body might as well have been a falling rock.'
Journalist Zoe Flood added: 'The poor sunbather should be left alone + his background is irrelevant. What the British press isn’t paying attention to, mostly, is what drove that person to stow away, and HOW they did it – on a major international airline, at a major international airport. That’s key.'
The Kenya Airports Authority (KAA) has opened investigations into the incident.
