Stowaway's body found in 747 wheel well at LAX

LOS ANGELES, California (AP) -- The body of a male stowaway was found Sunday in the wheel well of a British Airways jet at Los Angeles International Airport, officials said.

A pilot discovered the body of the young man in the front right wheel well of the 747-400 during a routine inspection shortly before it was to return to London, airport spokeswoman Nancy Castles said.

The FBI determined the stowaway likely died in the wheel well, Castles said. Autopsy results won't be available until later this week. Authorities had not identified the victim late Sunday.

The aircraft, British Airways Flight 283, had arrived from London Heathrow Airport at 3:15 p.m. and was scheduled to depart at 5:20 p.m. The airline notified officials of the discovery just before 4:30 p.m., Castles said.

Investigators were trying to determine where the stowaway boarded the plane.

"These aircraft don't go on a fixed route," said Alan Proud, a spokesman for British Airways. "It would have been somewhere else in world before that. That's part of the investigation, to look at where the aircraft had been before."

On January 12, the body of a young African man was discovered in the wheel well of a Delta plane that landed in Atlanta from Dakar, Senegal.

Authorities determined that the man hid in the plane in Senegal and was suffocated to death by the landing gear.

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