Ten police officers were detained in Algeria after a young man “intruded” in late December on the landing gear of a plane that was flying from Oran airport to Orly in Paris, the prosecutor’s office announced Monday.

The undocumented youth, estimated to be between 20 and 30 years old, was found suffering from “very severe hypothermia” at Paris Orly International Airport in the landing gear cavity of an Air Algérie aircraft that had arrived from Oran, in northwestern Algeria.

He was taken to a hospital in serious condition.

Ten police officers, as well as an Air Algérie engineer, were remanded in custody after testifying in an Oran court as part of a “preliminary investigation carried out by the general directorate of internal security,” according to a statement from the public prosecutor’s office.

They face charges of “negligent offenses that endangered the lives of the people on board the aircraft and others, as well as the safety of the aircraft,” according to the statement.

On Monday, the interior ministry announced the replacement of Algerian police chief Farid Bencheich, without specifying whether the decision was related to the investigation into the stowaway.

A similar episode unfolded in March 2022, at Constantine Airport (East), when a sixteen-year-old managed to sneak onto an Air Algérie aircraft bound for France. He arrived safely, having made the journey hidden in the luggage compartment.

Three months later, the lifeless bodies of two men were found on the landing gear of an aircraft at Algiers International Airport.

The victims were Algerians who wanted to immigrate illegally to Europe and hid in the landing gear of planes flying from Algiers to Barcelona and back, according to Algerian media.

Senior Algerian police officers had been suspended following the deaths of the two youths.