Builder wins £270,000 after Heathrow fall
A builder who survived a 120ft fall from the roof of Heathrow's Terminal 5 has been awarded £270,000 in compensation.
Parminder Singh, 24, and a fellow worker plummeted to the ground after a girder holding his work cradle snapped in August 2005.
Mr Singh suffered serious back, leg and head injuries but civil engineer Matthew Gilbert, 27, died.
His four-year fight for personal injury compensation was delayed when the Home Office refused him re-entry to the UK after convalescing in India because his visa had lapsed.
Mr Singh was living with his family in Slough at the time of the accident but now lives in Melbourne and is retraining to be an IT worker.
He said: "I can't remember much about the fall but I suffered nightmares for months. It was truly a miracle I survived. My leg was broken and my knee, back, jaw and teeth were injured. Life has been very difficult. I have been left with one leg shorter than the other and unless I move about my body seizes up."
Doctors credited the martial arts expert's survival to his high fitness levels. The collapse may have been caused by faulty bolts on a metal support which the men were attempting to fit.
