16-Year-Old Survives Unharmed Stowed Away In Wheel Well Of California To Hawaii Flight

Amazing: This is the first picture of the 16-year-old boy who traveled from San Jose, California to Maui, Hawaii on Sunday

SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) — A 15-year-old boy found his way onto an airport's tarmac and climbed into a jetliner's wheel well, then flew for five freezing hours to Hawaii — a misadventure that forced authorities to take a hard look at the security system that protects the nation's airline fleet.

The boy, who lives in Santa Clara, Calif., hopped out of the left rear wheel well of a Boeing 767 on the Maui airport tarmac Sunday, according to the FBI. Authorities found the high school student wandering the airport grounds with no identification. He was questioned by the FBI and taken by ambulance to a hospital, where he was found to be unharmed.

Miracle at Kahului Airport: The 16-year-old boy managed to survive for almost 6 hours in freezing temperatures at 38,000 feet during his stolen flight

FBI spokesman Tom Simon in Honolulu said the teen climbed into the left rear wheel well of the first plane he saw in San Jose.

"He got very lucky that he got to go to Maui but he was not targeting Maui as a destination," Simon said.

He passed out in the air and didn't regain consciousness until an hour after the plane landed in Hawaii, Simon said. When he came to, he climbed out of the wheel well and was immediately seen by airport personnel who escorted him inside where he was interviewed by the FBI, Simon said.

It was not immediately clear how the boy stayed alive in the unpressurized space, where temperatures at cruising altitude can fall well below zero and the air is too thin for humans to stay conscious. An FAA study of stowaways found that some survive by going into a hibernation-like state.

On Monday, authorities tried to determine how the boy slipped through multiple layers of security, including wide-ranging video surveillance, German shepherds and Segway-riding police officers.