Stowaway Survives 2.5-Hour Flight Hidden in Landing Gear

Man was hospitalized in serious condition after plane landed in Paris
By Evann Gastaldo,  Newser Staff
Posted Dec 29, 2023 1:00 AM CST
Stowaway Survives 2.5-Hour Flight Hidden in Landing Gear
Air Algerie planes sit on the tarmac of the Houari Boumediene airport in Algiers as some domestic flights resume, Sunday, Dec.6, 2020.   (AP Photo/Fateh Guidoum)

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 Air Algerie flight was two and a half hours long, and Fox News reports that those who hide in unpressurized parts of commercial airplanes face temperatures as low as -60 degrees Celsius and a lack of oxygen as the planes fly as high as 40,000 feet. The FAA says the mortality rate for stowaways in these areas is 77%. (More stowaway stories.)

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