The father of the Santa Clara teen who survived a 5 ½ hour flight over the Pacific, stowed away in the airplane’s wheel wall, says that he plans to fly to Hawaii and bring his son home.
According to NBC Bay Area, the father issued a statement saying “My name is Abdulahi Yusuf and I am Yahya's father. Our family was deeply concerned when my son went missing, and we were relieved to hear of his safety considering the circumstances of his trip.”
Yahya Abdi, 15, ran away from home after an argument broke out. He reportedly hopped the fence at Mineta San Jose airport and crawled into the wheel wall of a Hawaiian Airlines Boeing 767. He endured 5 ½ hours of freezing temperatures and little oxygen.
He was discovered at a Maui airport looking disoriented and dehydrated and was taken to a nearby hospital to recover, according to The NY Daily News.
“When I watched the analysis about the extraordinary and dangerous trip of my son on local TVs and that Allah had saved him, I thanked God and I was very happy,” Yusuf said, who believed that Allah saved his son.
When asked why his son ran away, Yusuf said that he missed Africa, which is where his mother lived and was doing poorly in school.
“I am excited to bring him back home to his family in California,” Yusuf said.