MOSCOW (AFP) - A man who stowed away in the chassis of a plane was found frozen to death upon landing in Moscow's Vnukovo Airport, Russian investigators said on Thursday.

"According to a preliminary conclusion, the Afro-American man died from freezing. The man was apparently flying without a ticket," the Investigative Committee said on its website.

The body was found in a compartment inside the plane's chassis.

The I-Fly airline's A-330 plane had flown in from Rimini, Italy, at 1am local time (5am Singapore time) on Thursday.