A teen hid in the wheel of a plane to travel from California to Hawaii as a stowaway. Fortunately, the 16-year-old boy survived the trip.
The teen had to face freezing temperatures and a lack of oxygen during the five-and-a-half four trip on the Hawaiian Airlines flight, but he somehow survived at 38,000 feet.
"How he survived, I don't know. It's a miracle," FBI spokesman Tom Simon told the Los Angeles Times. He says the boy must have passed out at some point since the air is so thin. It is believed he was unconscious for most of the flight.
Security cameras caught the teen hopping the fence at San Jose's Mineta International Airport. He then approached Flight 45 and managed to clim into the left wheel of the plane without being detected. The teen claims he had no idea that the plane was going to Hawaii.
The plane landed at Maui's Kahului Airport on Sunday morning. The boy did not wake up until an hour after the flight landed. When he woke up, he hopped from the wheel and onto the tarmac.
When Hawaiian Airlines personnel spotted the boy on an airport ramp, security was notified. Besides the security breach, the boy did not seem to be a threat to the airline and he has not been charged with a crime as of yet.
The teen ran away from home. He was cleared during a medical checkup and was handed over to officials from the Hawaiian Department of Human Services.
The FBI and the Transportation Security Administration are investigating how the teen was able to breach security without being detected.
While it is rare, this isn't the only time someone tried to hitch a ride on a flight. However not everyone was so lucky. In 2012, a body was found on a suburban street in London. It turned out to be a 26-year-old stowaway from a British Airlines flight that had fallen from the wheel.
This article is copyrighted by Travelers Today, the travel news leader
