PDT SAN JOSE -- The 15-year-old Santa Clara boy who survived a five-hour flight from San Jose in the wheel well of a Hawaiian Airlines plane had hoped to visit his mother in Africa and didn't realize he was heading to Maui, according to a Hawaii media report.
The boy, a student at Santa Clara High School, was unhappy living with his father, stepmother and siblings and wanted to reunite with his mother and other relatives in his native Africa, Hawaii News Now reported, citing unidentified sources in the Maui Police Department.
Authorities said the boy scaled a fence at Mineta San Jose International Airport in the predawn hours Sunday, then clambered up the landing gear of a Boeing 767 without anyone noticing.
He survived a 2,400-mile flight at high altitude and frigid temperatures in the wheel well, investigators said, staying unconscious for the duration of the flight and for an hour afterward before airline personnel saw him walking on the ramp at the Kahului airport in Maui.
He is not facing criminal charges in Hawaii or in San Jose and was released to social workers, authorities said.
The boy is "resting comfortably at a local hospital," Kayla Rosenfeld, spokeswoman for Hawaii's Department of Human Services said Tuesday. "Child Welfare Services officials continue to work with the appropriateagencies to ensure the youth's safe return to his home in California."
The boy's family in Santa Clara has declined to speak to reporters. They live in a one-story home on Forbes Avenue east of the San Tomas Expressway. The boy's father drives a Yellow Cab that he parks in the garage.
It was unclear Tuesday whether any relatives were on their way to Maui to be with the teen.
At Santa Clara High, Principal Gregory Shelby declined to discuss the teen in any detail Tuesday, citing confidentiality concerns. But he said, "Our district would be ready to have him back."
The teen and any of his classmates will be provided counseling or psychological support if they need it, Shelby said.
The boy apparently picked the first plane he saw, not realizing that his high-flying sojourn would take him halfway across the Pacific Ocean, authorities said.
The incident has raised questions about whether the San Jose airport's perimeter security is adequate. Airport spokeswoman Rosemary Barnes said the airport "meets and exceeds" all federal requirements but acknowledged that the boy eluded detection because he hopped over a fence "under cover of darkness."
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