DL lets minor fly with no ticket alone.

[700UW]

A 9-year-old Minneapolis boy hopped on board a Delta flight Thursday without a ticket and flew to Las Vegas, where police caught up with him and took him into protective custody.

http://www.startribune.com/local/west/226626241.html

 

[Kev3188]

Lol. Awesome.

Couldn't they at least've let him hit a table or two first?

 

[dfw gen]

Oh my god where is world traveler with his delta pom poms? How could this happen to THE WORLD CLASS DELTA? Please explain......

 

[700UW]

I too am waiting for his spin to blame everyone except Delta.

 

[FrugalFlyerv2.0]

Obviously TSA and the partial gov shutdown are 100% to blame for this ... ... ...

 

[737823]

You guys are crazy. WT doesn't work for DL, certainly not at MSP, how could he possibly have an explanation for what went on? But I'm sure if DL had bonafide IAM represented agents at MSP this wouldn't have happened, right? Clearly the system isn't working, the kid probably pushed in behind another large group or was slick and got past while they were dealing with other passengers. Funny no one has questioned the role of the parents, why the nine year old was at the airport unaccompanied to begin with. Didn't something similar happen at WN or UA years back?

Josh

 

[metopower]

Hats off to the f/a crew. They figured it out and handled it well.Surprise it has not happened more often.Exposes a weakness in the system just hope the remedy is not worse then the problem

 

[737823]

I agree. The flight was operated on a 763, why is the media slamming the crew for not realizing before they left the gate? With nearly 200 pax in Y it is not practical to take a count as they do in F/C. With that said, the kid must have checked seat map online and sat in an empty seat.

Josh

 

[700UW]

Every flight, has the FA's do a head count. See you don't work for an airline, you aren't an expert on procedures.

 

[WorldTraveler]

No. Seat counts are not done on every flight.

No one has defended anything.
There r reports that the kid stiffed a restaurant at the airport. People generally trust kids bc they r innocent. This one was not and procedures häve to be reworked.

 

[737823]

So many places that are supposedly access controlled are rather easy for poachers to get in. Airline club lounges, hotel club lounges, office buildings, doorman residential buildings, the fact is people can fairly easily "push" in behind someone else especially if the staff is preoccupied with other people it's easy for them to lose sight. But also in most situations if you act the part and fit in chances are your presence won't be noticed unless you are in a super uptight/controlled atmosphere.

Josh

 

[Kev3188]

Funny no one has questioned the role of the parents, why the nine year old was at the airport unaccompanied to begin with.

Maybe 'cause it's more fun to entertain a romantic sort of "Catch-me-if-you-can" ideal than the reality of whatever he may have been running from (to say nothing of the very likely end of the DL agent's career)...

 

[WorldTraveler]

Maybe 'cause it's more fun to entertain a romantic sort of "Catch-me-if-you-can" ideal than the reality of whatever he may have been running from (to say nothing of the very likely end of the DL agent's career)...

precisely on the first part, sir, and I most certainly hope that no employees are punished for this incident any more than an employee should have been punished for 9/11.

There is a whole lot more to the story than any of us will ever know - there always is with these types of stories.

If an employee was following procedures and the kid managed to bust thru umpteen layers of security, the final one being the boarding door, then you have to ask if there are sufficient and adequate procedures in place.

Who is to say that the kid wasn't smart enough to push his way around another multi-person party was boarding.

Figure out what went wrong, get social service involved, put appropriate checks in process for the future...

Sure, DL or any airline could put up a turnstile type system that permits only one person thru the boarding door for every boarding pass scanned but is that really the image that airlines want to project? And any system can be manipulated, regardless of the company involved, if there is enough criminal intent.

 

[700UW]

Procedures are way different than before 9/11, they were put in place to PREVENT that from happening.

The rules and regulations are totally different than before 9/11.

 

[WorldTraveler]

yes, we agree... but they are still not foolproof. This incident is proof of that.

It still doesn't mean an employee's job should be at risk because someone who was able to break thru multiple layers of security managed to finally board an aircraft.

How many people would have to be fired to get revenge for this event?

We can't even get someone in Washington to assume responsibility for any number of events when people were killed because others didn't do their jobs and yet somehow we want to hang a gate agent because a kid managed to get on a plane, only eventually to get caught.

Meto is correct. The system eventually worked... it just was several steps beyond when it should have.