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.