The California teen stowaway who survived a 5 1/2-hour flight from San Jose to Hawaii can be seen in just-released surveillance video stumbling from the plane's wheel well minutes after it touched down.
The 15-year-old was found walking on the tarmac at Kahului Airport just before 11:30 a.m. April 20, shortly after crossing the Pacific tucked away in the plane's landing gear. The new video is from that day, airport officials said.
- Raw Video: Teen Stowaway Seen on Security Video
"The teen appeared disoriented and was questioned by a worker near the plane who alerted security," airport officials said in a statement released last month.
"TSA and the FBI were also contacted. Surveillance video at Kahului Airport showed what appeared to be the boy exiting from the wheel well of a plane from San Jose, California, that had landed in Kahului, Maui, at about 10:30 a.m. The boy was treated by airport and county medics and then transported to a Maui hospital," they said.
San Jose Police say they still want to interview the teen, who survived sub-freezing temperatures in the wheel well of a jetliner as it crossed the Pacific Ocean.
Police spokesman Albert Morales says the 15-year-old Somali immigrant flew back to California over the weekend and was being cared for by Santa Clara County Child Protective Services.
San Jose police say they are investigating a possible trespassing charge against the teen. But they need to talk to the teen before they pursue the misdemeanor charge.
“We want to find out his thought processes and what was his intent,” SJPD spokesperson Albert Morales said. “At the minimum, he is looking at criminal trespassing, which is a misdemeanor in the state of California.”
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Police also want to ask the teen exactly where he scaled a fence at the airport, which allowed him to then hide in the wheel well of a Boeing 767.
Airport surveillance cameras did not capture the boy going over the fence, so where he climbed it remains a mystery.
Police say they hope to get specific details from the boy that can help them beef up security at the airport.
The teen's father, Abdilahi Yusuf, who drives a taxi in San Jose, flew to Hawaii last week to bring his son home, but child welfare officials there turned the boy over to their California counterparts.
The teen's mother Ubah Mohammed Abdule lives in a refugee camp in eastern Ethiopia and told The Associated Press that she learned of her son's discharge from the hospital through the media.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
