The body of a suspected stowaway has landed on a residential street in London after apparently plunging hundreds of metres from a Heathrow-bound plane as it prepared to land.

Police are investigating whether the victim, a male believed to be in his 30s, climbed into the aircraft in North Africa and hid among the landing gear before falling from the plane at the end of the flight.

One resident in the affluent London neighbourhood of Mortlake, about 20 kilometres from Heathrow Airport, reported hearing a "monstrous bang" before the man's remains were discovered lying on the street early on Sunday morning.

Body parts were strewn over a 25-metre area, residents told The Daily Telegraph in London.

"I heard a monstrous bang. I thought someone had been hit by a car," resident Annie Williams told the newspaper.