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Boy flies from Calif. to Hawaii in wheel well

Discussion in 'Sports and News' started by LongTimeListener, Apr 21, 2014.

  1. jr/shotglass

    jr/shotglass Well-Known Member

    What would a host say to him? "Congratulations on being an idiot"?
     
  2. LongTimeListener

    LongTimeListener Well-Known Member

    Follow-up articles say his plan was to hop a plane back to family in Africa. Not a particularly well-thought-out plan since:

    1) The plane said Hawaiian Airlines in nice big letters right there on the side.

    2) I don't think there is a flight to anywhere in Africa from that airport.
     
  3. Armchair_QB

    Armchair_QB Well-Known Member

    I'd think that once the landing gear was retracted, the chances of falling from that altitude would be pretty slim, but once they open the doors and lower the gear again, yeah, I don't see how you wouldn't fall if you weren't conscious.

    I'm surprised there would be enough room to fit in one of those wells once the wheels are retracted too.
     
  4. YankeeFan

    YankeeFan Well-Known Member

    The boy, a student at Santa Clara High School...

    http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Hawaii-bound-teen-stowaway-likely-saved-by-5422612.php
     
  5. LongTimeListener

    LongTimeListener Well-Known Member

    I'm not following you.
     
  6. jackfinarelli

    jackfinarelli Well-Known Member

    If his choice was (A) a wheel-well on Hawaiian Airlines versus (B) a flight on Southwest, the kid probably flipped a coin with regard to which would be the higher-quality transportation experience...
     
  7. WriteThinking

    WriteThinking Well-Known Member

    I've read and heard that the kid wouldn't be charged with anything. How can that be?

    With all the rules and laws that juveniles (and adults) can break, there's nothing that would or should apply in a case like this?

    Not even trespassing, or reckless endangerment, or some kind of grievous mischief? Seem really odd, and a little too easy to me...
     
  8. Iron_chet

    Iron_chet Well-Known Member

    They probably don't want how he breached security to become known in open court.
     
  9. The Big Ragu

    The Big Ragu Moderator Staff Member

    He hopped a fence. They have it on security camera. It was in the stories.

    Really, they aren't charging him because there isn't any point. He suffered enough already by his own hand. And there is no need to do it as a deterrent to others, because people, by and large, aren't clammering to hop airport fences and hitch rides in aircraft wheel wells.
     
  10. Vombatus

    Vombatus Well-Known Member

    Hawaiian should charge him for an airline ticket.
     
  11. I Should Coco

    I Should Coco Well-Known Member

    From the AP story:

    A much better meal than anyone received on the plane, I'm sure.
     
  12. YankeeFan

    YankeeFan Well-Known Member

    The teen's father speaks:


    Abdilahi Yusuf Abdi also tells Voice of America's Somali service that he was confused at first when police from Hawaii called on Sunday to say his son had landed in Maui.

    "They told me that they were holding my son," the California cab driver said to VOA. "I was shocked. I wondered how my son went there. ... They tried to explain to me about the stowaway and the plane story. I got confused, and asked them to call the San Jose police department which later explained to me how things happened."

    As we reported Wednesday, it's thought that the 15-year-old boy — who the father identified to VOA as Yahya Abdi — had some vague plan in mind to eventually return to his native Somalia, where his mother lives. The father told VOA that the family has other relatives there as well.

    "He was always talking about going back to Africa, where his grandparents still live," the dad told VOA, referring to the teen. "We want to go back, but due to the current living conditions we can't go back."

    Oakland's KTVU-TV reports that "Jennifer Dericco, a spokeswoman for the Santa Clara Unified School District, confirmed that Santa Clara High School Principal Gregory Shelby sent a note Tuesday to staff members saying the teen had been in the U.S. for about four years, speaks English as his second language and had transferred into the district just five weeks ago."

    n.pr/1k8VzN5
     
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