Manenberg teenager identified as Boeing 747 stowaway
By Chanel September
4 February 2007
A Cape Town teenager whose body was discovered on a plane in the United States has been identified as 17-year-old Samuel Peter Benjamin, from Manenberg on the Cape Flats.
The teenager’s frozen body was discovered in Los Angeles last Sunday, in the gear bay of a Boeing 747.
It is believed that Benjamin had stowed away in the wheel bay of the plane. Over the next four days the Boeing made six long-haul flights to London, Singapore, Hong Kong, and Los Angeles.
An autopsy was held on January 30, and additional test results are still pending, which could take up to eight weeks. Samuel would reportedly have died within an hour of take-off because of the gradual decrease in oxygen.
Benjamin’s shocked mother Michelle says he had left home without saying where he was going.
4 February 2007
A Cape Town teenager whose body was discovered on a plane in the United States has been identified as 17-year-old Samuel Peter Benjamin, from Manenberg on the Cape Flats.
The teenager’s frozen body was discovered in Los Angeles last Sunday, in the gear bay of a Boeing 747.
It is believed that Benjamin had stowed away in the wheel bay of the plane. Over the next four days the Boeing made six long-haul flights to London, Singapore, Hong Kong, and Los Angeles.
An autopsy was held on January 30, and additional test results are still pending, which could take up to eight weeks. Samuel would reportedly have died within an hour of take-off because of the gradual decrease in oxygen.
Benjamin’s shocked mother Michelle says he had left home without saying where he was going.
Comments
sadness for the death of her son.
As a mother myself I can only imagine the pain she must be feeling now.
Mother in Monroe, WA
USA