David?
What is up with letting just anybody on a plane? I mean here we are having to strip down and go barefoot and a nine year old with NO ticket, NO boarding pass, just waltzes through and onto the plane??!!
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-01-17-airline-runaway_x.htm?csp=34
LOL!!
Dang, we have secure flights these days...
WOW! That IS amazing! Scary too. That a 9 year old is smart enough to figure out how to navigate his way around the airport and airlines reservation systems. Hell, half the adults I know wander around aimlessly in airports asking for help and directions.
I am guessing an adult or older teens coached him on how to find out how to get the boarding pass and how to figure out which planes go where.
The system failure is obviously at the SouthWest Airlines counter. The counter agent was most likely trying to be helpful to an unaccompanied minor. But still, some red flags should have been raised when he showed up alone and without paperwork. They should have held him and tried contacting his parents to verify if he was supposed to be flying at all.
The TSA security checkpoint was clueless to his runaway status. He had a boarding pass, so that gets him in. The TSA crew would not have known that he had an ill gotten boarding pass. Especially if he was escorted to the gate by a SouthWest ticket agent, which the story does not say if he did or not.
Of course, nobody questions the validity of a child travelling. The average person does not see them as a threat. That is another reason why we screen all people regardless of age to the fullest. Terrorist cells are now using children overseas as decoys or even agents. I'm sure this kid had his bag x-rayed just like everyone else.
Maybe this kid just saw the Leonardo DiCaprio movie "Catch me if you can".