Talk about a gate crasher.
If there were gold medals given to travelers who could get by increased security at airports on high alert during the London 2012 Olympics, then a cheeky 11-year-old boy would be wearing some major hardware around his neck right now.
Instead, the only things that are circling Liam Corcoran’s neck is his mother’s hands.
Last week, the boy made international headlines when he managed to slip through security and fly from Britain’s Manchester Airport to Rome without a passport or a boarding pass.
So, how does a kid walk through more than one airport security checkpoint and get on a plane without a ticket, ID or any other documentation?
Corcoran told authorities that he simply walked behind a family with kids his age and no one gave him a second glance.
Well, at least not until the Jet2.com flight was in the air and halfway to Italy’s capital. That’s when a few passengers noticed that the young boy was sitting alone, and alerted the plane’s crew.
According to Corcoran, he hung out in the plane’s lavatory upon boarding, and then took an empty seat once the jet was airborne.
In fact, the boy admitted to officials that hitching a ride to Rome minus a ticket was “easier than doing homework.”
So, clearly the kid was not scarred by the incident.
Of course, we don’t know what happened to him once he got home. I would expect his parents were very relieved that he was safe, at least for a few hours after they were reunited. What type of punishment he was dealt for stowing away on a plane and flying hundreds of miles away from home remains a mystery.
In the meantime, authorities at Manchester Airport are busy trying to solve their own mystery. They say they can’t figure out how the boy slipped by security without a single person discovering his ruse.
“This extremely serious matter is now being urgently investigated by officials from the airport and airline,” an airport spokesman told news reporters. “It is clear that documentation has not been checked correctly at security and the boarding gate. The boy went through full security screening so the safety of passengers and the aircraft was never compromised.”
What would you do if your kid stowed away on a commercial airliner?
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