"A 16-year-old boy stowed away in the wheel well of a flight from California to Hawaii on Sunday, surviving the trip halfway across the Pacific Ocean unharmed despite frigid temperatures at 38,000 feet and a lack of oxygen," reports the AP.
The young man snuck aboard from San Jose, CA, and made it to Maui. The FBI is questioning him.
"Kid's lucky to be alive," said an FBI agent, who explained that the boy ran away from his family after an argument.
A photo of the young man being wheeled into an ambulance is here.
Security video from San Jose's Mineta International Airport indicates the teen was able to breach security and climb undetected into the wheel well of Hawaiian Airlines Flight 45.
"The FBI says he was dazed and confused, with no identification on him." No charges will be filed, according to early reports.
It's great that he survived. It's also great that he was not a terrorist. Hopefully airport security authorities will review the weaknesses that allowed this incident to happen, and focus efforts there instead of inside our shampoo bottles and toothpaste tubes.
