Boy, 11, without ticket gets through airport security, nearly boards plane

ATLANTA — The Transportation Security Administration has confirmed that an 11-year-old boy got through a security checkpoint at Atlanta’s airport without having a boarding pass or ticket.

Sources told Channel 2's Tom Jones that the child went through the main security checkpoint at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport and was screened.

They said the boy then tried to board a flight by blending in with a family. The boy was caught when the family said he wasn't with them.

“How is that even possible?” traveler Empress Love told Jones. “He should have never been able to get past the security. From right there they should have stopped him.

The incident happened Friday afternoon. TSA representative Sari Koshetz said the child didn't have to show identification at the security checkpoint because he is a minor.

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Koshetz had no comment when Jones pointed out that the boy didn't have a boarding pass. She said after he was screened an officer asked the boy where his parents were. That's when the child got away.

“It's hard to understand how something like that could happen,” one woman, who asked not to be identified, said.

Sources told Jones that the boy got to a gate where he tried to blend in with a family and board a plane. When the family said they didn't know him he took off before officers eventually found him.

Jones tracked down the boy's mother. She didn't want to comment about the incident. Jones told her he was trying to figure out how this all happened.

“OK, well you should be at the airport asking them how that happened,” the mother told Jones.

The TSA isn't saying much about the incident.

“I can't understand how he would have gotten past the security piece because you have to show them your ticket and your ID,” a traveler said.

The TSA said the incident wasn't a breach of security since agents screened the child.

The child is back home with his mother. Jones’ sources say he took a bus to the airport and indicated he just wanted to get away.

Cox Media Group