Stowaway in critical condition after surviving Oran-Paris flight in landing gear compartment

French authorities discovered a man in his 20s hidden in the landing gear compartment of Air Algérie flight AH1060 from Oran, Algeria, as the plane, a Boeing 737-800 registered 7T-VKQ, landed at Paris’s Orly airport. Despite severe hypothermia and lack of identification, he survived and was hospitalized in critical condition.

Travelling in such a compartment, which lacks heat and pressurisation, poses extreme risks due to low temperatures and oxygen levels at 30,000 to 40,000 feet altitudes. Reports cite instances of stowaways in these compartments, highlighting the high mortality rate—77%—associated with such attempts, as indicated by US Federal Aviation Administration data referencing 132 known wheel-well stowaway cases between 1947 and 2021.