A 16-year-old boy survived a 5.5 hour trip from Northern California to Hawaii stowed away in a Hawaiian Airlines flight wheel well.
Security footage obtained by the FBI shows the boy hopping a fence at San Jose airport Sunday morning to get to Hawaiian Airlines Flight 45. Traveling 2,300 miles at an altitude of 38,000 feet with temperatures as low as 80 degrees below 0, it’s a miracle the kid is still alive.
After landing at Maui airport, he was discovered when he jumped down to the tarmac and started wandering around. One airlines analyst says the odds of surviving at that altitude in those temperatures are almost non-existent. This has lead to a few experts questioning if the story is real. They say a study on 10 people who did the same thing showed that the five who survived entered a virtual “hibernative” state.
Authorities said the boy didn’t have an ID on him but said he was from Santa Clara, California and ran away from home after a fight. He explained that he crawled into the wheel well and went unconscious after the plane took off. He didn’t remember the flight at all.
Here I thought I stuck it to my parents when I hid at my friend’s house after a fight. Well, that’s what I would have done if I had change for the bus and we weren’t having pizza that night.
Video from the Maui airport (which hopefully leaks soon) shows him crawling out of the left main gear area. The kid won’t be charged with a federal crime and was sent to child protective services.
Rights to the movie have probably already been secured.