A nine-year-old boy was able to board a plane in Minnesota and fly to Nevada with no ticket or boarding pass.
Does this make you feel safer? A nine-year-old boy was able to board a plane in Minnesota and fly to Nevada with no ticket or boarding pass.
The big question in this case is how did this boy get through at least three layers of security at the airport? There are three levels of security he would need to have passed through. The first checkpoint is the screening by the TSA, including metal detectors. Then he would have had to get by the Delta Airlines gate agents before boarding the plane. The last level of security would be the flight crew themselves who should have questioned why the boy had no boarding pass before the plane took off.
This only provides further proof that the entire TSA is a complete waste of money.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
Does this make you feel safer? A nine-year-old boy was able to board a plane in Minnesota and fly to Nevada with no ticket or boarding pass.
The big question in this case is how did this boy get through at least three layers of security at the airport? There are three levels of security he would need to have passed through. The first checkpoint is the screening by the TSA, including metal detectors. Then he would have had to get by the Delta Airlines gate agents before boarding the plane. The last level of security would be the flight crew themselves who should have questioned why the boy had no boarding pass before the plane took off.
This only provides further proof that the entire TSA is a complete waste of money.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
Did anyone ask the kid how he did it?
Also, link?
Link added. Sorry.
Heh, that’s an awesome story.
There’s really only two tiers of security: the TSA check at Security, and the scanning of the boarding pass at the gate. The only time I’ve had a flight attendant check my boarding pass was when the same seat was assigned to two people (it happens). Flight attendants generally assume that if you’re on the plane, you’ve successfully passed muster at the previous checkpoints.
I can see a child getting past a busy gate agent; an adult could do it, too. The TSA lapse is a bit harder to explain. I suspect TSA agents don’t look at children with the same level of scrutiny as adults: children under 12 aren’t required to remove their shoes, for example. Perhaps he just attached himself to a likely looking couple, and got in with the flow of people. If the flight has been completely booked, and everyone with a ticket had shown up, he would have been caught out. It appears luck and human fallibility worked in his favor.
Actually there is a third level of security that the flight crew does.
ALL unaccompanied minors MUST check in with the gate and then check in with the crew. The crew is informed they are unaccompanied and are to make sure they get to their seat and around the aircraft ok. Unaccompanied minors can NOT sit in any emergency exit seats.
Just seeing a child on the plane should have alerted them to check the boarding pass lists for an unaccompanied minor. Or at least ask the person sitting next to them if they are the parent if the child is not on the lists.
It appears that this final level of security is what got him.The stewardess thought it odd for him to be traveling with no boarding pass. The fact it took them until after takeoff is a troubling thing.
The kids pretty smart though to have made it around those crack security guards of the TSA and their one way single lane checkpoints.
I bet this kid has had the run of the airport for at least a week before boarding the plane. I bet he found out how to get through the employee doors and make his way around security.
They said they found him on video tape at the baggage area, getting off the railway into the airport and also at a restaurant after the security area, but not at the security area.
I must respectfully disagree with your assessment. You state that ‘ALL unaccompanied minors MUST check in with the gate and then check in with the crew.’ If a minor is looking to game the system, they’re not going to comply with the rules and regs. Unaccompanied minors are common on flights; there’s no reason the flight crew would think there’s anything out of the ordinary. The motives of an intent human are not to be confused with a law-abiding citizen.
When sending my son from one end of this country to the other to visit his mother I couldn’t find a single airline that would take him without paying the extra for an unaccompanied minor.
For one the child must now show id or birth certificate along with his pass at all check points. From the ticket counter to the security stations to the boarding areas.
Minor is any child under 14 or 15 depending on airlines. Heck I even had to show his birth certificate and once my custody papers when I accompanied him.
For three years straight me and him were singled out and given the extra inspection at the Oakland airport leaving California. 3 Years straight. We were told each time it was a random check. Even though the three obviously Muslim men just ahead of us were not given the extra look over.
If some child is getting on the plane without going through any of this please inform me of the airport so I could use it more.
If some child is getting past all the security then its securities fault for letting a 9 year old walk across the whole of the airport from the door to get in to the plane itself.
I used to fly unaccompanied all the time. But that was 30 years ago. No security and or checks. I could have and did walk right out onto the tarmak to see the planes. Try that one now. No 10 year old will do it and get away with it.
Any child you see alone on a plane now is known by the crew. You might just not notice it. They don’t have signs around their necks all the time. They are often boarded first or last, if you want to identify them that way.