The body appeared to be male, based on the clothing, San Francisco International Airport spokesman Mike McCarron said.
He said the person apparently had crawled inside the nose gear's housing intentionally, suggesting an attempted stowaway. It's been attempted before, he said, "but it's never been successful."
"At altitude, there's no air to breathe and it's maybe minus-40 degrees for 12 hours," McCarron said. "You can't survive."
I wish Mike McCarron had done some research before making a bold statement. It was successfully attempted by an Indian dude on a BA 747 few years ago. He was dazed, but made through the 9 or 10 hour flight from India to LHR.
However, it’s generally agreed that the extreme temperatures won’t allow most humans to survive. If I recall correctly, that Indian dude was stowed in there with another guy whose body was crushed when the wheels came up and it fell out on a five mile final or so to LHR runway when the 74 landing gear came down.