U.S. Air Force doctors were worried about Ebola when a teenage boy was found dead in a compartment near the wheel well of a U.S. military C-130 aircraft in Germany, after the plane made several stops in Africa.

It took two days before the incident was made public, because U.S. military and German doctors had to make sure the boy wasn't sick of any communicable disease, among other reasons. The ebola outbreak in parts of western Africa had killed 672 people, including an American who had travelled to Nigeria.

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Lab examination of samples taken from the boy's body proved negative. 

The Pentagon confirmed that the aircraft had just landed at Ramstein Air Base on Sunday night when members of the U.S. Air Force found the boy's body during a detailed inspection of the plane.

Authorities said a wet orange cloth in a small opening by the plane's rear landing gear led the military personnel to the boy's remains in the wheel well.

During a news conference, Navy Rear Adm. John Kirby, press secretary of the Pentagon, said the stowaway was a black adolescent male of possible African origin. The C-130 aircraft had made several stops in Senegal, Mali, Chad, Tunisia for a routine mission, and then headed to the Naval Air Station Sigonella in Sicily, before it arrived in Germany.

It is unlikely that the boy snuck in the heavily guarded Sigonella air base, Kirby said. Initial indications show the boy may have climbed aboard undetected in Mali. 

Kirby also said that no senior officers of the US Africa Command were on the C-130 flight.

The Pentagon regards the incident as a major security breach.

"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," Kirby said.

The boy's body has already been turned over to German authorities for an autopsy and identification, Kirby said.

TagsNews, us military, US military bases, US Air Force, Germany, stowaway, Ebola Virus, C-130 plane, Military, military plane