Stowaway survives -50C flight from Algeria to Paris in landing gear bay

A man was found in the landing gear of an Air Algerie plane. Photo: SOPA Images/LightRocket

Surviving stowaway — Temperature of 50°C on a flight from Algiers to Paris was found in the plane's landing gear after it landed in the French capital.

A man believed to be about 20 years old, was discovered during technical checks after an air flight. The Algerian flight from Oran landed at Orly airport, prosecutors told AFP.

He had no documents on him and was taken to hospital in serious condition, they said.

A source at the airport previously reported that the man was «alive, but in a life-threatening condition due to severe hypothermia.»

The man was found during technical checks. Photo: @aviationbrk/Newsflash

A commercial aircraft flies at altitudes of 30,000 to 40,000 feet, where temperatures typically drop to about -50 C and the lack of oxygen makes survival unlikely for those traveling in the landing gear compartment, which is not heated or pressurized.

According to the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), between 1947 and 2021, 132 people tried to travel in the landing gear bays of commercial aircraft.

Those who do this are called industry «wheel niches». stowaways.

In April this year, the body of a man, who had previously been in Nigeria, was found in the undercarriage of a plane at Amsterdam Schiphol Airport, which had previously been in Nigeria.< /p>

Four months earlier, two passengers were found dead on arrival at the landing gear storage area of ​​the plane, which was taking off from the Chilean capital Santiago and its Colombian counterpart Bogota.

In July 2019, the frozen body of a man fell into a garden in a London suburb as it approached Heathrow Airport. He is believed to have hidden himself in the landing gear of a Kenya Airways plane.

According to the FAA, the death rate among people who venture on such trips is extremely high — 77 percent.

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