Runaway 7-year-old takes train to airport, boards plane with no ticket

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Runaway 7-year-old takes train to airport, boards plane with no ticket

 

FILE PHOTO: Passengers arrive at the departure building at Cointrin airport in Geneva, Switzerland, April 12, 2016. REUTERS/Denis Balibouse/File Photo

 

GENEVA (Reuters) - A seven-year-old girl who ran away from her parents managed to take a train to Geneva airport and board a plane despite having no ticket.

 

The girl gave her parents the slip near Geneva's central railway station on Sunday, then took the one-stop ride to the airport. Her parents rang the Swiss police, who tracked her progress through the airport on security videos, airport spokesman Bertrand Staempfli said.

 

She went through the security gate and managed to pass herself off as the child of adults around her, before using her small stature to slip through the departure gate without being noticed and boarding a plane, the airport said in a statement.

 

On her first attempt she followed a crew towards the plane and was turned back. She melted into the crowd and pretended to look for her parents. The second time, she managed to get into a plane, was spotted by an official, stopped, and handed over to police.

 

Staempfli declined to say which airline was involved or where it was flying to, but he said it was leaving from the airport's French sector and the destination was in France.

 

Geneva airport straddles the French-Swiss border and passengers can leave from France or Switzerland.

 

The airport said in the statement it would tighten safety rules and boarding procedures as a result of what it called the "highly regrettable incident".

 

"This should never have happened," Staempfli said.

 

(Reporting by Tom Miles)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2017-11-01

[Moonmoon]

Red sparrow! 

[DLang]

She's a crafty one.

 

Frank Abagnale's granddaughter? 

[Nong Khai Man]

Good Job She was'nt a Suicide Bomber !!!

[BuaBS]

She boards a plane , but doesn't get to fly . Still impressive for a smart 7 year old . Just like the 10 year old teen that drove 160 km/h.

[boomerangutang]

She's crafty and brave.  Perhaps, when grown up, she could get a job with US intel service.  US intel, despite it's tens of billions of dollar budgets, seem to be relying on European intel for all the stuff coming forth on the Trump-Russia thing.    (ok, sorry for linking this thread to US politics).

[Baerboxer]

If you've flown into that airport and then walked through into the French side this won't surprise you!

 

Clever girl though!

[boomerangutang]

I once had some time to kill at Inchon/Seoul airport.  I walked out the doors, across a large lawn, into the adjoining town, strolled around for 2 hours, and walked back into the airport.  No one challenged me going or coming.   I think it was 2001, a couple of months before 9-11.  No visa, no nuthin'

[mfd101]

Energy + initiative. She'll go far, eventually.

[toofarnorth]

25 minutes ago, mfd101 said:

Energy + initiative. She'll go far, eventually.

...........what , by plane ?

[YetAnother]

6 hours ago, DLang said:

She's a crafty one.

 

Frank Abagnale's granddaughter? 

she will be a Real Success at {something}

[Bigfarang1948]

Resourceful to say the least, but it does not exactly inspire confidence in Air Port security does it?

[Andaman Al]

Nice to see kids displaying some initiative 

 

I can still remember leaving home for the first time when I was 5 yrs old, because my Mum wouldn't buy me an ice cream from the ice cream van. In my very small suitcase I packed all I would need, a copy of the Dandy, a tennis ball and teddy bear. My mother kissed me farewell and i walked off, ..........to the bottom of the garden. This girl was a tad more resourceful and determined than me.

[Jack100]

A budding Mata Hari ............

[Scott]

I wonder what is going on at home that would cause a 7 year old to run away like that?  

[Andaman Al]

3 minutes ago, Scott said:

I wonder what is going on at home that would cause a 7 year old to run away like that?  

Hopefully they had all just sat and watched "catch me if you can"   Otherwise there was obviously something deeply troubling for the youngster to do that.

[Ulic]

I certainly didn't have the parts to do that when I was 7.  Adventurous and headstrong.