9 year old boy hops plane to Vegas, alone and without ticket

A 9 year old boy did the unthinkable in the US
last week; he went through airport security with
other passengers, and hopped on a flight to Las
Vegas on his own without a plane ticket.
The Transportation Security Administration
officials said they are still trying to figure out
how he did it. CNN reports
Patrick Hogan, a spokesman for Minneapolis-St.
Paul International Airport, said the crew of Delta
Flight 1651 "became suspicious of the child's
circumstances" during the flight from
Minneapolis to Las Vegas. Crew members got in
touch with authorities in Las Vegas and turned
the boy over to Child Protective Services, Hogan
said in a statement.
"Fortunately, the flight crew took appropriate
actions to ensure the child's safety, so the story
does have a good ending," he said. Delta said it
takes the incident "very seriously" and is working
with authorities.
The boy, a runaway from the Twin Cities, spent a
good amount of time at the airport before
boarding the plane, KARE said. He was there the
day before, the station reported, citing airport
officials. He passed his time by taking luggage
from a carousel, bringing it to an airport eatery
and then ditching it, asking a server to watch the
bag "while he went to the restroom."
The following day the child took the train to the
airport, cleared security and made it to Las
Vegas nearly without detection.
"Obviously, the fact that the child's actions
weren't detected until he was in flight is
concerning," Hogan wrote. Still, 33 million
people travel through Minneapolis' airport every
year, he noted. "I don't know of another
instance in my 13 years at the airport in which
anything similar has happened," he said.
A flight security expert said it's very concerning
that the child made it through several security
checks
"All of this (security) since 9/11 has been to
keep us safe. And it has, but still we have gaping
holes, and this is a perfect example of it," Terry
Trippler of ThePlaneRules.com told KARE.