Paris, France

A man was found hidden in a commercial aircraft's landing gear compartment which flew into Paris from Algeria, said the French authorities. The unidentified man had suffered severe hypothermia but was luckily alive.

The man, who was reported to be in his 20s, was discovered during technical checks by the officials after the Air Algerie flight – which had departed from Oran, Algeria – landed at Orly airport in Paris on Thursday (Dec 28), said prosecutors.

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He was not carrying any identification proof, and was admitted to the hospital in serious condition, said the officials. As per an airport source, it was reported that the man “was alive but in a life-threatening condition because of severe hypothermia”.

Hiding in plane's landing gear a common practice

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Commercial aircraft, after the take-off, cruise at 30,000 to 40,000ft altitude where there is a decline in temperatures by nearly -50 degrees Celsius (-58 Fahrenheit) and survival becomes unlikely due to lack of oxygen in the landing gear compartment which is neither pressurised nor heated.

As per the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) data, between 1947 and 2021, 132 people – who were known as 'wheel-well stowaways' in the industry – tried to travel in the commercial aircraft's landing gear compartments.

In April, a man's body was found in an aircraft's landing gear in Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport. The flight had earlier taken off from Nigeria and had landed in Toronto earlier, which was a stopover.

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Four months before that, two passengers were found dead inside the landing gear storage space of a place which took off from Santiago de Chile and landed in Bogota.

In July 2019, a man's frozen body fell into a garden in a London suburb which was reported to have been in Kenya Airways plane's landing gear compartment while the flight was approaching Heathrow airport.

In 2015, a stowaway hiding in a British Airways flight from Johannesburg to Heathrow died and his body landed at a shop in Richmond, southwest London. However, the second person was able to endure and survive the 10-hour flight and was found hidden in the undercarriage of the plane.

As per the FAA figures, the mortality rate of people who try to travel in this way is 77 per cent.

(With inputs from agencies)