An 11-year-old girl managed to sneak onto a commercial plane and fly unaccompanied from Moscow to St Petersburg without a ticket or identification.
Russian authorities are investigating how the girl was able to get past security checkpoints and airline employees before boarding the domestic flight operated by Rossiya Airlines.
She decided to sneak onto the plane at Moscow’s Vnukovo International Airport because she had never flown before and was eager to experience it for the first time, Russian media reported.
No one asked whether the girl had a boarding pass or identification because she attached herself to a large group of family members and staff thought she was with them, Russian state broadcaster RT reported.
She managed to go through check-in, security and gate checks without being found out until she arrived in St Petersburg on Monday.
After the 90-minute flight landed she stayed at the airport and soon received a mobile phone call from her frantic parents, who were trying to locate her after she failed to return from school, RT reported.
Her parents were stunned when they learned she was at St Petersburg’s Pulkovo airport.
They called airport staff, who located the girl and handed her over to social workers so she could be flown back to Moscow.
Security procedures
A review of security procedures at Vnukovo airport and Rossiya Airlines is now underway.
In 2013, a similar incident occurred when an unaccompanied nine-year-old boy made it through security without a boarding pass or identification at Minneapolis-St Paul International Airport, in Minnesota, and flew on a Delta Air Lines plane to Las Vegas.
Crew members became suspicious on the flight to Las Vegas and turned the boy over to police when it landed.
In 2012, an 11-year-old boy managed to sneak onto a Jet2 flight at Manchester Airport without a ticket or passport and fly to Rome.
Concerned passengers alerted cabin crew during the flight and the boy was flown back to Manchester on the return flight.
MailOnline contacted Rossiya Airlines and Vnukovo airport for comment.
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