"Stowaway" claims to be American

Accra, March 1, GNA - The young "stowaway" discovered in a "delicate compartment" of a Ghana Airways New York bound aircraft on Saturday morning has given his identity as Tyrease Knowles, an American from Jackson, Mississippi, according to security sources at the Kotoka International Airport.

The 19-year old boy was pulled out from a delicate compartment beneath the cockpit of the aircraft in the early hours of Saturday after the pilot noticed an unusual lighting on the plane while heading for the taxiway, indicating that one of the doors in the compartment was not closed. Knowles, who was found in the nose wheel bay holding a flashlight, a small bag containing biscuits, a small pillow and a magazine, reportedly entered the plane while it was at the hangar.

"He managed to scale a portion of the security fence at the hangar area and made his way to the nose wheel bay from where he opened a hatch leading to the cockpit," the security sources said.

The stowaway reportedly told interrogators that he came to Ghana from the United States last October by the same means and that his initial destination was London but he ended up in Accra. The sources said investigations were still continuing to establish whether there were any collaborators.