Flight without parents Twelve-year-old from Meckenheim tries to fly solo to L.A.
MECKENHEIM · A 12-year-old boy from Meckenheim tried to take a flight to Los Angeles, but without his parents. It didn’t quite work out as planned for the young traveler.
There’s a saying that parents raise their children so they can grow their wings and fly - but they get them to plant roots as well so they always know where they come from and where they belong. But the part about the wings - a twelve-year-old boy from Meckenheim took it a bit too literally. Although it was still a good one and a half weeks until the start of his summer holidays, he packed his suitcase to fly to L.A., alone, without his parents.
It seems the young man did not really inform anyone at home about his trip to California, nearly 10,000 kilometers away. On Sunday evening at 7pm, his father reported the boy missing. As police spokesman Simon Rott told the General Anzeiger, only three hours later, at around 10pm, a telephone call from Vienna reached the worried father. Security personnel at the airport there became suspicious when the twelve-year-old traveler tried to check in for the flight to L.A. on his own.
“The boy had his passport and a youth bank card with which you can only withdraw a small amount,” said Rott. According to GA information, a maximum of 20 euros per month can be withdrawn with the card. It is unclear how the youth was able to purchase two plane tickets. He had flown on his own to Vienna, and also had a ticket for L.A.
Understandably, the young traveler did not receive permission to continue on with his trip to L.A. - it’s not even his summer holidays yet. On Monday evening, his parents were able to embrace him again at Frankfurt Airport. Instead of a trip to L.A., the dream traveler can probably expect: long-term chores. Lawn mowing, car washing and other activities might be the payback for the family funds used without permission for a plane ticket to L.A.
(Orig. text: Mario Quadt / Translation: ck)
