(04-21) 11:58 PDT SAN JOSE -- Aviation and security experts were at a loss Monday to explain how a 16-year-old boy from Santa Clara managed to scale a fence at Mineta San Jose International Airport before surviving a five-hour flight to Maui in the wheel well of a Hawaiian Airlines jet.
Authorities said the boy apparently hopped a fence at the San Jose airport while it was still dark Sunday morning. Surveillance video showed an unidentified person walking toward a Hawaiian Airlines Boeing 767 on the tarmac, authorities said. Flight 45 took off at 7:55 a.m. - with no one realizing that the boy had snuck into the plane's wheel well.
The boy was apparently unconscious for the duration of the flight at high altitude and extremely cold temperatures. After the plane landed at Kahului Airport in Maui at 10:30 a.m. local time, he remained unconscious for about an hour before emerging from the wheel well, said FBI Special Agent Tom Simon in Honolulu.
"Hawaiian Airlines personnel in Maui noticed the individual on the ramp" and immediately notified airport security, said Hawaiian Airlines spokeswoman Alison Croyle.
A photo from Maui News showed the boy sitting up on a stretcher and being placed into an ambulance. His name and condition weren't released. He is not facing any criminal charges in Hawaii and was released to Child Protective Services, Simon said, adding that the teen had run away from his home after an argument.
"The boy is lucky to be alive," Simon said. "I can't imagine anybody surviving that type of flight."
Croyle agreed, saying, "Our primary concern now is for the well-being of the boy, who is exceptionally lucky to have survived. Hawaiian and its contractors responsible for handling our aircraft in San Jose are ready to assist various government agencies in their investigation of this incident."
San Jose airport spokeswoman Rosemary Barnes said the airport, the FBI and Transportation Security Administration officials were reviewing security measures and remain "concerned about the health and welfare of the teenager."
Barnes said the airport "meets and exceeds" all federal security requirements as mandated by the TSA.
"Despite this, no system is 100 percent, and it is possible to scale an airport perimeter fence line, especially under cover of darkness, and remain undetected, and it appears this is what this teenager did," Barnes said.
Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Dublin, said although much has been done to secure airports after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the incident raises some troubling questions.
"I'm interested, as a member of the Homeland Security committee, in learning about what happened at this airport, what does perimeter security look like at all of our commercial airports across the country and is there more that we could be doing to make sure that somebody who would want to do harm does not have unfettered or ease of access onto the runway."
Aviation experts said it was hard to believe the boy survived. The plane was traveling as high as 37,000 feet, where temperatures are 40 to 50 degrees below zero.
Wheel wells, the compartments that contain the landing gear for planes, aren't pressurized. At high altitude, stowaways can die from hypothermia or hypoxia as a result of insufficient oxygen.
And even if people survive the high-altitude flight, depending on where they're located, they could freeze to death - or plunge to the ground once the landing gear is lowered for landing.
Some experts theorized that because of the unforgiving conditions, the boy's body went into a state of hibernation, remaining unconscious until the plane reached a lower altitude.
"A medical miracle, akin to those who fall into frozen rivers and survive," said former San Francisco International Airport spokesman Mike McCarron.
Pilot and aviation consultant John Nance said the incident is "one of three things - a hoax, a miracle or we're going to have to rewrite the textbooks if he actually did what he says he did. He needs to be studied very carefully by medical science because this is not supposed to be possible."
Although such incidents are rare, they are not unheard of.
A study of wheel well stowaways by the Federal Aviation Administration noted, "It is also likely that various unsuccessful attempts were never documented (or known), the bodies falling into an ocean, or into a remote land area. Key preventive measures are ramp security and security measures during taxi operations with pauses, and while holding for takeoff at the departure runway."
Authorities said the boy apparently hopped a fence at the San Jose airport while it was still dark Sunday morning. Surveillance video showed an unidentified person walking toward a Hawaiian Airlines Boeing 767 on the tarmac, authorities said. Flight 45 took off at 7:55 a.m. - with no one realizing that the boy had snuck into the plane's wheel well.
The boy was apparently unconscious for the duration of the flight at high altitude and extremely cold temperatures. After the plane landed at Kahului Airport in Maui at 10:30 a.m. local time, he remained unconscious for about an hour before emerging from the wheel well, said FBI Special Agent Tom Simon in Honolulu.
"Hawaiian Airlines personnel in Maui noticed the individual on the ramp" and immediately notified airport security, said Hawaiian Airlines spokeswoman Alison Croyle.
A photo from Maui News showed the boy sitting up on a stretcher and being placed into an ambulance. His name and condition weren't released. He is not facing any criminal charges in Hawaii and was released to Child Protective Services, Simon said, adding that the teen had run away from his home after an argument.
"The boy is lucky to be alive," Simon said. "I can't imagine anybody surviving that type of flight."
Croyle agreed, saying, "Our primary concern now is for the well-being of the boy, who is exceptionally lucky to have survived. Hawaiian and its contractors responsible for handling our aircraft in San Jose are ready to assist various government agencies in their investigation of this incident."
San Jose airport spokeswoman Rosemary Barnes said the airport, the FBI and Transportation Security Administration officials were reviewing security measures and remain "concerned about the health and welfare of the teenager."
Barnes said the airport "meets and exceeds" all federal security requirements as mandated by the TSA.
"Despite this, no system is 100 percent, and it is possible to scale an airport perimeter fence line, especially under cover of darkness, and remain undetected, and it appears this is what this teenager did," Barnes said.
Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Dublin, said although much has been done to secure airports after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the incident raises some troubling questions.
"I'm interested, as a member of the Homeland Security committee, in learning about what happened at this airport, what does perimeter security look like at all of our commercial airports across the country and is there more that we could be doing to make sure that somebody who would want to do harm does not have unfettered or ease of access onto the runway."
Aviation experts said it was hard to believe the boy survived. The plane was traveling as high as 37,000 feet, where temperatures are 40 to 50 degrees below zero.
Wheel wells, the compartments that contain the landing gear for planes, aren't pressurized. At high altitude, stowaways can die from hypothermia or hypoxia as a result of insufficient oxygen.
And even if people survive the high-altitude flight, depending on where they're located, they could freeze to death - or plunge to the ground once the landing gear is lowered for landing.
Some experts theorized that because of the unforgiving conditions, the boy's body went into a state of hibernation, remaining unconscious until the plane reached a lower altitude.
"A medical miracle, akin to those who fall into frozen rivers and survive," said former San Francisco International Airport spokesman Mike McCarron.
Pilot and aviation consultant John Nance said the incident is "one of three things - a hoax, a miracle or we're going to have to rewrite the textbooks if he actually did what he says he did. He needs to be studied very carefully by medical science because this is not supposed to be possible."
Although such incidents are rare, they are not unheard of.
A study of wheel well stowaways by the Federal Aviation Administration noted, "It is also likely that various unsuccessful attempts were never documented (or known), the bodies falling into an ocean, or into a remote land area. Key preventive measures are ramp security and security measures during taxi operations with pauses, and while holding for takeoff at the departure runway."
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