Stowaway on Qantas flight sparks inquiry

Press, 30 August 1984, Page 6

Stowaway on Qantas flight sparks inquiry

NZPA-AAP Sydney An American boy, aged 14, who stowed away on a Qantas flight from Honolulu, sauntered past customs officers in Sydney, saying he was looking for his mother. The boy, David John Smith, of Honolulu, is being held on immigration charges. A Qantas spokesman, Mr Ken Boys, said David Smith claimed he stowed away on Qantas Flight 4 after joining transit passengers en route to Sydney at Honolulu Airport. He apparently boarded the plane after asking an official if he could go and get his coat. He then hid in the aircraft toilets, but after the plane took off found a vacant seat and sat through the 10-hour flight, watching a movie and having two meals, before arriving at Sydney’s Mascot Airport. Mr Boys said the boy disembarked at Mascot

without being questioned, and walked into the customs area of the busy terminalsix jumbos had arrived within 15 minutes—where he was approached by customs officers and told he was in a restricted area and should not be there. David Smith, wearing a T-shirt, shorts and jandals and without any money or identification, told the officers he was looking for his mother who was arriving in Australia. The customs officers accepted his story, showed him the way out, and he left. He then hitch-hiked to Bondi Beach to look at the surf, but decided to take a taxi back to the airport, where he hoped to fly on to Greece, Mr Boys said. The taxi-driver, however, put an end to his plans by taking him to the Federal police office when he could not pay the taxi-fare. David Smith, told the police he lived in a child

welfare institution in Honolulu, and that he had been placed there in 1983 after stowing away on a flight from San Francisco to Honolulu. In Canberra, a spokeswoman for the Immigration and Ethnic Affairs Minister, Mr West, said he would be repatriated—not deported—to the United States. Qantas would return him to Honolulu, but Mr Boys said his parents might be liable for the $2600 return economy fare, although it is not yet certain whether he has any living parents. The Collector of Customs in New South Wales, Mr Frank Kelly, said he had started an inquiry into the boy’s arrival. The immediate aim was to find out how he evaded normal security screens before arriving at the customs barrier, before being permitted by customs officers to pass through.