It is still unclear whether a stowaway found dead on the wheel well of a British Airways plane in Los Angeles was a South African citizen, the Department of Foreign Affairs said on Tuesday.
”We are awaiting the autopsy report, upon which we will take fingerprints for verification of the nationality of the man,” said spokesperson Ronnie Mamoepa.
The Associated Press reported that a pilot found the body of the 17-year-old in the front right wheel well of the 747-400 during a routine inspection on Sunday afternoon.
The British Airways flight had arrived from London’s Heathrow Airport on Sunday. Before that, it had made trips to Hong Kong, Singapore, Cape Town and Vancouver, the report said.
The aircraft had been in Cape Town on January 22.
The stowaway was identified as a black male carrying South African identification.
The report said there were no traumatic wounds on the body, indicating that the young man’s death had not been caused by the impact of the plane’s wheels retracting.
Stowaways often die as the wheel well is not pressurised or heated despite being enclosed. — Sapa