Runaway Teen Miraculously Survives Flight To Maui In Wheel Well Of Plane
Written by Elaine Wilson, Posted on , in Section Therapy News
Just How Far Will Teens Go To Get Away From Their Parents?
Some teens would do almost anything, and for a sixteen-year-old from California this meant facing almost certain death by flying over the Pacific Ocean.
The young man (whose identity hasn't been revealed) somehow avoided security and managed to get inside the wheel well of a Hawaiian Airlines plane and stow himself away there. Despite a lack of oxygen and lower than freezing temperatures, as the Boeing 767 reached heights of over 38,000 feet, the boy miraculously survived and was seen wandering the tarmac on Saturday when he arrived in Honolulu. After being questioned by airport security, the teen was taken to a local hospital to await his parents’ arrival.
The question is, why? The young man admits that he ran away from home after an argument with his parents. But he didn’t just “run away”—he made his way to San Jose International airport and sequestered himself into a tiny, freezing, air-deficient space—all for over five hours. While he slept most of the flight (due to the extreme elements), he is being hailed as “lucky to be alive” by FBI spokesperson in Honolulu, Tom Simon. “It’s amazing he survived that,” Simon told reporters. Based on the conditions this boy went through during the flight, this seems like an understatement. The boy's parents were scheduled to fly into Honolulu on Sunday to retrieve their son.
Flying High
Still, the question remains as to why the teen felt that the situation was so terrible at home that he had no choice to run—then fly—away from home. That a child would go to such extremes definitely suggests that the atmosphere at home (which authorities are surely looking into) was unhealthy to say the least. However, it's also important to remember how headstrong a teenager can be. Any parent can tell you of the difficulties in raising a teen, and this could be nothing more than a teen taking his dissatisfaction of “living with parents” to an all-new extreme that could have cost him his life.
If this is the case, the young man certainly has more “guts,” so to speak, than I have. With such initiative, he could bring about positive changes and make people aware of more issues everywhere.
But first, he’s going to have to get out of trouble.
