CCTV: Plane stowaway on tarmac at Hawaii’s Kahului Airport after terrifying flight

CCTV captures many things. Many things that seem pretty normal to start with but with a backstory become increasingly unbelievable.

This is a view of a plane, obviously, at Maui in Hawaii. But what is not so obvious is who this figure is or what he or she is doing. Officials at Kapalua Airport released this footage after the story of a stowaway emerged, as the teenage Somali boy did after lodging himself in the wheel well of a Boeing 767 jet before it flew from California to Hawaii. He braved freezing temperatures and had little oxygen at high altitude but became one of only a fraction of people to survive this ordeal.

After being confronted by an airport worker, he was taken away to hospital for treatment and has since been placed in protective custody. He later told investigators he was trying to go to Africa to find his mother.

Difficult words: CCTV (security camera), stowaway (somebody who hides on a vehicle), lodge (place himself somewhere), brave (to deal with a difficult situation), ordeal (difficult experience), protective custody (being kept somewhere for the person’s own protection).