Air France confirmed that the corpse of a child was found on a flight originating from Abidjan, the capital of Ivory Coast. The airline has not provided further information to the discovery on the Boeing 777, but French media sources report it was a ten-year-old boy, citing internal sources.
The airline’s spokesperson described the deceased as a ‘stowaway passenger’ and called the matter a human tragedy. Whenever stowaway passengers hide themselves in parts of the plane, they rarely survive the flight. Most people who hide in a plane’s undercarriage freeze to death during the flight, as temperatures can drop to -50 degrees Celsius, or suffocate due to a lack of oxygen.
Air France offered its condolences to the child’s family. The Ivory Coast security services confirmed that there is a security issue at the airport in the capital. The question remains as to how a small child was able to access a plane alone, without coming to the attention of anyone.
Whilst Ivory Coast remains one of the most dynamic economies in Africa - with annual average growth of 8% since 2012 -, clandestine immigration to Europe has climbed over recent years, mainly due to jihadist attacks in the country.
In 2017, 8,753 migrants between the ages of 14 and 24 left the Ivory Coast for Italy, of which 1,263 were women, and 1,474 unaccompanied minors. These figures come from the Italian NGO the International Volunteering Centre (CEVI).
