A 9-year-old boy from Minneapolis sneaked past airport security at the Minneapolis/St. Paul International Airport on Thursday and somehow boarded a plane headed for Las Vegas.
Airport officials are calling the incident a security mishap. New questions are being raised about airport security following the incident.
The boy was reportedly a runaway from the Twin Cities area and he somehow managed to sneak into the airport and past security with no one to stop him. He made it through the secutiry checkpoint at around 10:30 a.m. and boarded Delta Flight 1651 about 45 minutes later.
Reuters reported that it was not until during the flight that crew members aboard the plane became suspicious of the boy. They notified authorities once they landed in Las Vegas and the boy was taken in by Child Protective Services.
"At this point, this is a Delta and TSA issue," airport spokesperson Pat Hogan told KARE 11. "This is a rare incident."
Delta officials also released a statement to KARE, saying, "We are investigating the incident and cooperating with the agencies involved." The TSA is reported to have released a statement saying the same as Delta.
After reviewing the airport footage, officials are saying that they do not believe that the boy had a ticket when he passed through security.
The boy was reportedly at the airport the day before he took the flight to Las Vegas as well. He took someone’s luggage off of a carousel and went to order food at one of the airport’s restaurants before leaving it with a server and disappearing.
The boy has since been returned to his family in Minneapolis and his parents are working with authorities.