diff --git a/asterixdb/asterix-app/src/main/java/org/apache/asterix/app/external/ExternalLibraryClassLoader.java b/asterixdb/asterix-app/src/main/java/org/apache/asterix/app/external/ExternalLibraryClassLoader.java
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..711ac6d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/asterixdb/asterix-app/src/main/java/org/apache/asterix/app/external/ExternalLibraryClassLoader.java
@@ -0,0 +1,56 @@
+/*
+ * Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one
+ * or more contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file
+ * distributed with this work for additional information
+ * regarding copyright ownership.  The ASF licenses this file
+ * to you under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the
+ * "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance
+ * with the License.  You may obtain a copy of the License at
+ *
+ *   http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+ *
+ * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing,
+ * software distributed under the License is distributed on an
+ * "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY
+ * KIND, either express or implied.  See the License for the
+ * specific language governing permissions and limitations
+ * under the License.
+ */
+package org.apache.asterix.app.external;
+
+import java.net.URL;
+import java.net.URLClassLoader;
+
+public class ExternalLibraryClassLoader extends URLClassLoader {
+
+    private static final ClassLoader bootClassLoader = new ClassLoader(null){};
+
+    public ExternalLibraryClassLoader(URL[] urls, ClassLoader parentClassLoader) {
+        super(urls, parentClassLoader);
+    }
+
+    @Override
+    protected Class<?> loadClass(String name, boolean resolveClass) throws ClassNotFoundException {
+        synchronized (getClassLoadingLock(name)) {
+            Class<?> clazz = findLoadedClass(name);
+            if (clazz == null) {
+                try {
+                    clazz = bootClassLoader.loadClass(name);
+                } catch (ClassNotFoundException ex) {
+                    // this is expected path for non-bootclassloader classes
+                    try {
+                        clazz = findClass(name);
+                    } catch (ClassNotFoundException ex2) {
+                        // this is expected path for classes not defined in the external library classpath,
+                        // finally we try our parent classloader
+                        clazz = getParent().loadClass(name);
+                    }
+                }
+            }
+            if (resolveClass) {
+                resolveClass(clazz);
+            }
+            return clazz;
+        }
+    }
+}
diff --git a/asterixdb/asterix-app/src/main/java/org/apache/asterix/app/external/ExternalLibraryUtils.java b/asterixdb/asterix-app/src/main/java/org/apache/asterix/app/external/ExternalLibraryUtils.java
index a5654bd..04aebf5 100755
--- a/asterixdb/asterix-app/src/main/java/org/apache/asterix/app/external/ExternalLibraryUtils.java
+++ b/asterixdb/asterix-app/src/main/java/org/apache/asterix/app/external/ExternalLibraryUtils.java
@@ -21,7 +21,6 @@
 import java.io.File;
 import java.io.FilenameFilter;
 import java.net.URL;
-import java.net.URLClassLoader;
 import java.rmi.RemoteException;
 import java.util.ArrayList;
 import java.util.HashMap;
@@ -379,8 +378,7 @@
         }
 
         // create and return the class loader
-        ClassLoader classLoader = new URLClassLoader(urls, parentClassLoader);
-        return classLoader;
+        return new ExternalLibraryClassLoader(urls, parentClassLoader);
     }
 
     /**