A man was found barely alive hidden in the wheel well of an aircraft that arrived at Paris’s Orly Airport from Algeria on Thursday.
The stowaway, believed to be in his 20s, has severe hypothermia, said officials.
He was discovered during technical checks after the Air Algerie flight from Oran, north-west Algeria, landed at midmorning, French prosecutors said.
He had no identification papers and was taken to hospital in a serious condition, they said.
An airport source earlier reported that the man “was alive but in a life-threatening condition because of severe hypothermia”.
Commercial aircraft cruise at an altitude of between 9,000 and 12,000m, where temperatures typically drop to about minus 50°C.
In addition to the cold, a lack of oxygen makes survival unlikely for anyone travelling in the landing gear compartment, which is neither heated nor pressurised.
According to US Federal Aviation Administration data, 132 people – known in the industry as wheel-well stowaways – tried to…
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