over an airport fence, crossed a tarmac and climbed
into a jetliner's wheel well, then flew for five
freezing hours to Hawaii - a misadventure that stirred concern about possible weak spots in the
security system that protects the nation's airline
fleet.
The boy, who lives in Santa Clara, California, and attends
a local high school, hopped out of the wheel well of
a Boeing 767 on the Maui airport tarmac Sunday.
Authorities found him wandering around the
airport grounds with no identification.
He was
questioned by the FBI and taken by ambulance to a
hospital, where he was found to be unharmed.
FBI spokesman Tom Simon in Honolulu said the
teen did not remember the flight from San Jose.
It was not immediately clear how the boy stayed
alive in the unpressurized space, where
temperatures at cruising altitude can fall well below
zero and the air is too thin for humans to stay
conscious.
An FAA study of stowaways found that
some went into a hibernation-like state.
On Monday, authorities tried to determine how the
boy slipped through multiple layers of security,
including wide-ranging video surveillance, German
shepherds and Segway-riding police officers.
Security footage from the San Jose airport verified
that the boy climbed a fence and crossed a runway to get to Hawaiian Airlines Flight 45 on Sunday
morning, Simon said.
That airport, in the heart of Silicon Valley, is
surrounded by fences, although many sections do
not have barbed wire and could easily be scaled.
The boy climbed over during the night, "under the cover of darkness," San Jose airport spokeswoman
Rosemary Barnes said Monday.
Hours later, surveillance video at Kahului Airport
showed the boy getting out of the wheel well after
landing, according to a statement from Hawaii's
Department of Transportation.
The video was not released due to the ongoing investigation.
Hawaiian Airlines spokeswoman Alison Croyle said
airline personnel noticed the boy on the ramp after
the flight arrived and immediately notified airport
security.
"Our primary concern now is for the well-being of the boy, who is exceptionally lucky to have
survived," Croyle said.
Isaac Yeffet, a former head of security for the Israeli
airline El Al who now runs his own firm, Yeffet
Security Consultants, said the breech shows that
U.S. airport security still has weaknesses, despite billions of dollars invested.
"Shame on us for doing such a terrible job," he said.
"Perimeters are not well protected. We see it again
and again.
"
A congressman who serves on the Homeland
Security committee wondered how the teen could have sneaked onto the airfield unnoticed.
"I have long been concerned about security at our
airport perimeters.
#Stowaway teen demonstrates
vulnerabilities that need to be addressed," tweeted
Rep. Eric Swalwell, a Democrat who represents the
San Francisco Bay Area's eastern cities and suburbs.
Unlike checkpoint security inside the airport, which
is the responsibility of the Transportation Security
Administration, airport perimeters are policed by
local authorities as well as federal law enforcement.
Airport police were working with the FBI and the
Transportation Security Administration to review security.
The boy was released to child protective services in
Hawaii and not charged with a crime, Simon said.
San Jose police say they will forward the findings of
their investigation to the district attorney, who can
decide whether to file criminal charges in California.
The FAA says 105 stowaways have sneaked
aboard 94 flights worldwide since 1947, and about
1 out of 4 survived.
But agency studies say the
actual numbers are probably higher, as some
survivors may have escaped unnoticed, and bodies
could fall into the ocean undetected.
In August, a 13- or 14-year-old boy in Nigeria
survived a 35-minute trip in the wheel well of a
domestic flight after stowing away.
Authorities
credited the flight's short duration and its altitude of
about 25,000 feet.
Others who hid in wheel wells
have died, including a 16-year-old killed aboard a flight from Charlotte, N.C., to Boston in 2010 and a
man who fell onto a sub urban London street as a
flight from Angola began its descent in 2012.
An FAA review of high-altitude wheel well
survivors said they typically clamber past the main
landing gear into a wing recess area next to where the gear retracts.
On some aircraft, that space is
large enough for two small adults.
The FAA found that all wheel-well stowaways will
lose consciousness at high altitude from lack of
oxygen, and that their freezing bodies go into a
state somewhat similar to hibernation.
At 38,000 feet - the cruising altitude of the Hawaiian Airlines
flight - the outside air temperature is about -85
degrees. That would usually be deadly, but some
people survive because their breathing, heart rate
and brain activity slow down.
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