A child stowaway hidden in an Air France plane’s landing gear was found dead upon arrival in Paris, officials say. The Boeing 777 landed in France from the Ivory Coast.
It’s believed the boy, whose age has not been released, froze to death or died of asphyxiation during the approximately six-and-a-half-hour flight, a source close to the investigation told Agence France-Presse.
It appears the child, not warmly dressed, climbed into the underbelly of the plane in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, before it took off Tuesday evening and landed at Charles de Gaulle airport on Wednesday morning.
Air France has released a statement to media regarding the child’s death on Flight 703, declaring it “a human tragedy.”
“Air France confirms that the lifeless body of a stowaway was found in the landing gear compartment of the aircraft operating flight AF703 from Abidjan (ABJ) to Paris-Charles de Gaulle on 7 January 2020,” the airline said.
“Air France expresses its deepest sympathy and compassion for this human tragedy. An investigation is underway.”
A French police official told the Associated Press the deceased was a young African who hasn’t yet been identified, adding that stowaway attempts of this nature are nearly impossible to survive.
In a since-deleted Tweet, Air France responded to a Twitter user, writing in French: “The company expresses its compassion and deplores this human drama. An investigation is underway.”
The Guardian reports that temperatures typically drop to -50 C at altitudes between 9,000 and 10,000 metres. The undercarriage where the child was isn’t heated or pressurized.
Sadly, this isn’t the first tragedy of its kind.
In July last year, the corpse of a man fell from a Kenyan Airways flight into the backyard of a home in London.
“Aside from the human drama, this shows a major failing of security at Abidjan airport,” an Ivorian security source told AFP.
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In 2013, a similar incident occurred when a boy’s body was found in the underbelly of a plane from Cameroon.
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