THE survival of a young Senegalese stowaway who hid for some five hours in the landing gear of an Airbus bound from Dakar to Lyon is almost a miracle, French doctors say. The stowaway, about 15, was found unconscious “in bad shape but alive” on January 17. After eight days in hospital, doctors on Sunday said he was out of danger. “To survive at 9000m or 10000m is normally impossible under the laws of physics,” said Bernard Marsini, an anaesthetist. “A human being only has a 20% breathing capacity at 9000m,” said Hugues Chardonnet, a specialist in hypoxia, the condition resulting from a lack of oxygen supply to the body. He speculates the young man may have been saved by hypothermia, which would have protected his brain, no longer needing oxygen.