Zidane Fan's Freezing Wheel-Well

On August 4, 2000, a 19-year-old stowaway hid in the wheel well of an Air France flight from Tahiti to Los Angeles, hoping to continue on to France so he could shake hands with soccer star Zinedine Zidane. As the jet cruised at about 38,000 feet, he endured subzero temperatures and very little oxygen, conditions that usually kill wheel well stowaways long before landing.

When ground crews found him in Los Angeles, his core body temperature was just 79 degrees Fahrenheit, far below the threshold normally considered fatal. Doctors managed to warm him up and stabilize him, and he ultimately survived one of the rare wheel well journeys at cruising altitude that did not end in death.

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