16-Year-Old Boy Rides In Wheel Well For 5-Hour Hawaii Flight

[ashling]

HONOLULU (AP) — Officials say a 16-year-old boy is "lucky to be alive" and unharmed after flying from California to Hawaii stowed away in a plane's wheel well, surviving cold temperatures at 38,000 feet and a lack of oxygen.

"Doesn't even remember the flight," FBI spokesman Tom Simon in Honolulu told The Associated Press on Sunday night. "It's amazing he survived that."

***
Simon said security footage from the San Jose airport verified that the boy from Santa Clara, Calif., hopped a fence to get to Hawaiian Airlines Flight 45 on Sunday morning. The child had run away from his family after an argument, Simon said. Simon said when the Boeing 767 landed in Maui, the boy hopped down from the wheel well and started wandering around the airport grounds.

"He was unconscious for the lion's share of the flight," Simon said. The flight lasted about 5 1/2 hours.

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/16-year-old-rides-in-wheel-well-for-5-hour-hawaii-flight

[warrprayer]

1. strange, i just read that...

before logging on to D.U.!

How he survived is unknowable...

[joeybee12]

2. Saw some headline about a wheel well on some station...

Paid no attention...but I guess it was about this...amazing.

[kairos12]

3. New seating on Spirit Airlines.

[KamaAina]

4. They made it in 5 hours westbound?

It's usually 6 hours, with the headwind. Figures: the flight back, that no one really wants to take, is 5 hours with a tailwind.