Passengers on a plane in England Sunday night were stunned when they found out their flight was delayed due to a 12-year-old boy who had boarded without a ticket after evading airport security.
According to The Telegraph, British Airways Flight 269 was preparing for a flight from London’s Heathrow Airport to Los Angeles International Airport when crew members noticed the boy traveling without a guardian and asked him for his boarding pass.
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As attendants tried to figure out how the boy got onto the flight without a pass, police officers arrived on the scene with sniffer dogs and the passengers were removed to go through another security check.
Passenger Rachel Richardson said the security breach resulted in a delay of several hours before the plane eventually took off on its flight to the United States.
A British Airways spokesperson released an official statement on the incident:
“We have apologized to our customers for the delay to their flight after an issue during boarding. The safety and security of our customers and crew is always our top priority and everyone who had boarded the aircraft had been subject to security checks. We conducted additional precautionary screening as soon as this issue came to light and we are assisting the police with their inquiries.”
A Heathrow representative also released a statement:
“The individual did not represent a security risk and, purely as a precaution, the aircraft in question was re-screened and has since departed. We apologize for the disruption and will continue working closely with the authorities and our airline partners to keep the airport safe.”
