According to Navy Rear Adm. John Kirby, the teen stowaway was a black male who may have been of African origin. The flight originated in Mali but had other stops in between.
Kirby said the body was found during a routine post-flight maintenance inspection of the cargo plane.
He said the body had been turned over to German authorities for autopsy, and the matter is under investigation. He added that it is not known when or where the stowaway entered the landing gear wheel well.
Kirby further said the cause of death had not yet been determined. Lab results from samples taken from the body were negative for communicable diseases, Kirby said.
In addition to identifying the child, Martin reports, officials will now have to determine how a child managed to sneak into the wheel well of an American military aircraft. The fact that an unauthorized person managed to stow away aboard a military plane without being detected was a significant security breach.
The plane had stopped for refueling in Sigonella, Sicily, but it is considered unlikely the child got on there because Sigonella is a secure base.
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