Teen stowaway wanted to go to Africa, ended up in Hawaii

A 15-year-old boy who made international headlines this week by surviving an astonishing five-hour journey in a jet's wheel well was actually trying to get to Somalia to find his mother but ended up in Hawaii.
The boy survived the nearly 3,700-km journey from California-to-Maui over the Pacific Ocean - enduring frigid temperatures, oxygen deprivation and a compartment unfit for human habitation - as he travelled in the jet's wheel well at an altitude of some 38,000 feet.
A report in the Hawaii News Now quoted Maui police sources as saying that the boy ran away and was trying to get to Africa. The boy had been living with his father in Santa Clara, but his mother lives in Somalia.

He ended up on a Hawaiian Airlines jet because it was the closest plane to the fence he scaled. He also told police he got confused by the writing on the plane, the report said.
San Jose airport officials say surveillance video shows a figure cross the tarmac and head towards the plane.
The boy is originally from Africa and told authorities he climbed into the wheel well and hitched a ride, ending up in Kahului, the report said.

The teen, a student at Santa Clara High School, has been in the United States for about four years and speaks English as a second language, the San Jose Mercury News said.

"The district is in contact with his family and authorities so that when he returns to school, he will be able to get the services he needs," Santa Clara High Principal Gregory Shelby told the daily.
The fact that he survived is both baffling and scary.
He told authorities he passed out shortly after takeoff. Medical experts say the body goes into a state of hibernation when faced with the conditions and few survive.
Temperatures are well below zero degrees. The elevation, 38,000 feet, is higher than the tallest mountain. Oxygen levels quickly drop from 20 per cent on the ground, to 5 per cent in the that altitude. And he survived all this, for five hours.

The boy was found wandering around the airport grounds about an hour after the plane landed.
He was disoriented and had trouble hearing, but other than that, seemed to be unharmed.