Teen stowaway’s body found in U.S. Air Force cargo plane wheel well at Germany air base

The unidentified child is likely from Africa. The C-130J had taken off from Mali and stopped at other nations on the continent before returning Sunday to Ramstein Air Base in Germany. The stowaway represents a serious security breach regarding American aircraft.

BY SASHA GOLDSTEIN

MASTER SGT. DAVID D. UNDERWOOD, JR./USAF/APA teen, likely from Africa, on Sunday sneaked into the wheel well of a C-130 Hercules aircraft like the one shown. The body was found at Ramstein Air Base in Germany.

KPIXYahye Abdi, the teen who stowed away in the wheel well of a jet plane to Hawaii, spoke about his experience last month. He survived the five-hour flight from San Jose, Calif.

A teen boy’s body was found Sunday in the wheel well of a U.S. Air Force cargo aircraft after the plane landed

at the Ramstein Air Base in Germany, the Pentagon said Tuesday.

The teen was likely from Africa. The C-130J aircraft stopped in Senegal, Mali, Chad, Tunisia and landed to refuel in Sigonella, Sicily, but it's unclear where the child stowed away.

American authorities say they do not believe the child boarded the rear landing gear at Sigonella because it’s a secure base, CBS reports, while other stops were more remote and less secure. But the fact a child was able to sneak on at any point is considered a major breach in security.

"Security is going to be looked at here. Obviously it would be," Navy Rear Adm. John Kirby told the Associated Press. "We try to provide as much security as we can for our aircraft when they're operating in remote locations, and this will all be part of the investigation."

The body was found during a post-flight maintenance check at Ramstein and was turned over to German authorities for an autopsy. The cause of death has yet to be made public.

Lab tests showed the teen did not have any communicable diseases, a Pentagon spokesman told reporters.

A California teen survived a five-hour flight from San Jose, Calif., to Hawaii in the wheel well of a commercial Boeing jet, which reportedly reached an altitude of 35,000 feet. In June, a 17-year-old Norwegian boy was found dead in the wheel well of a KLM flight that landed in Amsterdam.