The teen stowaway, whose 5 1/2-hour journey from San Jose, Calif. to Maui in the wheel well of a Hawaiian Airlines jet captured the world's attention, has left Hawaii, officials said.
A statement from Kayla Rosenfeld, a spokesperson for the Hawaii Department of Human Services late Friday night, said that the Santa Clara teen is "safe and no longer in Hawaii." Rosenfeld's statement said the department was no longer involved in the case.
Rosenfeld's statement did not specify when or with whom 15-year-old Yahya Abdi had left Hawaii.
Abdi scaled the fence at San Jose Airport on April 20, stowing away in a Boeing 767's wheel, surviving high altitudes, low oxygen and freezing temperatures. When he was found several hours later in Maui’s main airport, he was hospitalized for breathing problems.
Yahya's father Abdilahi Yusuf arrived in Hawaii last week to meet his son. Sources told the San Jose Mercury News that Hawaii social service agency officials have denied the father Yusuf access to his son.
A social worker likely escorted the teenager back to the South Bay sometime Friday evening, according to sources. But officials are not commenting on where he might be.
According to media reports, Yahya was trying to go to Africa to see his mother, who lives in a refugee camp in Ethiopia. He had just transferred to Santa Clara High school where, according to his father, he was having academic troubles.
He had just transferred to Santa Clara High school where, according to his father, he was having academic troubles.
