U.S. military officials say the body of a stowaway found in the wheel well of an Air Force cargo plane in Germany has tested negative for disease, including Ebola.
Navy Rear Admiral John Kirby said Wednesday laboratory results indicate the young stowaway did not have any communicable diseases. Kirby said there had been concern because of the recent Ebola outbreak in West Africa.
The U.S. Air Force chief of staff, General Mark Welsh, said asphyxiation was the cause of death. Welsh said the stowaway got on the plane during a stop in Mali, but it is not known if he was from Mali.
The plane, a C-130 turboprop, had been on a routine mission in Africa, with stops in Senegal, Mali, Chad, Tunisia and Naval Air Station Sigonella in Sicily.
Kirby said the stowaway appeared to be a teenager, but his identity is still unknown.
Investigators are still not sure how the boy climbed into the plane's wheel well, but they say he was well hidden. General Welsh said the incident "raised security concerns for everybody involved."
In April, a young Somali immigrant survived a flight from San Jose International Airport in California to Hawaii while stowed away in the wheel well of a Boeing 767 commercial airliner.
