US teenager survives five-hour flight in wheel well
Monday, 21 April 2014
A 16-year-old boy has survived an extraordinary journey hidden in the wheel well of a five-hour flight from California to Hawaii. A spokesman for Hawaiian Airlines said airline staff noticed the boy after the plane landed on Sunday morning. He was questioned by the FBI and given a medical screening and was said to be in a stable condition. The boy is reported to have run away from home and jumped over a fence at San Jose airport to get to the plane. Between 1947 and 2012, 96 wheel well stowaways are thought to have attempted to board 85 flights. 73 of those stowaways died and 23 survived."Our primary concern now is for the well-being of the boy, who is exceptionally lucky to have survived,'' a spokeswoman for Hawaiian Airlines said. "Kid's lucky to be alive,'' FBI spokesman Tom Simon told the AP news agency, according to BBC.