A stowaway was found alive but in critical condition in the undercarriage bay of an Air Algeria airplane at Paris Orly airport on Thursday morning.
Person Survives Flight To Paris In Landing Gear
A commercial aircraft that landed at Paris’ Orly airport Thursday morning had a stowaway hidden in its landing gear—and he had survived the flight from Algeria to France.
An airport source tells AFP (via the Guardian) the unidentified man, who is in his 20s, “was alive but in a life-threatening condition because of severe hypothermia”; he was hospitalized in serious condition.
The plane was coming from the Western Algerian town of Oran, a two-and-a-half hour flight from Paris.
The stowaway is being treated for life-threatening conditions at a nearby hospital.
Stowaways in the unpressurized wheel-houses and cargo holds of planes can face temperatures of between minus 50 Celsius and minus 60 Celsius as well as a lack of oxygen.
In 2019, the body of a suspected stowaway fell hundreds of meters from a plane flying over southwest London, landing in the garden of a man’s home, just missing him as he sunbathed.
The FAA says the mortality rate for stowaways in these areas is 77%.
