Flying super-economy class

A man unwittingly exposed gaps in US air cargo security by shipping himself some 2,000 kilometers (1,240 miles) across the United States on a cargo plane to visit his family in Texas.

Charles McKinley, 25, said Wednesday that he wanted to see his family but could not afford a plane ticket, so he packed himself in a wooden crate Friday afternoon and was loaded into a cargo plane with the help of a friend.

The box was unloaded Saturday morning in Dallas, Texas, and McKinley was discovered by a delivery service employee and reported to police before the box was taken to his parents' house in DeSoto, Texas. . .

NBC television reported that it would have been cheaper for McKinley to board a plane in the conventional way than it was for him to ship himself in the 160-kilo (350-pound) crate. McKinley said he would "never, never do it again," noting that he suffered from thirst and cold during the flight.

There's definitely a serious side to this story, however:

"Anyone can climb into a box that's properly packaged, as was demonstrated by this fool," warned Captain Phillip Beall of the Airline Pilots Security Alliance, a group that supports arming pilots. "But a fuel-laden 767 full of boxes can be commandeered and used in exactly the same way as fuel-laden planes were used on September 11, 2001," he said. "This is a huge security risk."

Less than 10 percent of air cargo is inspected, and machines used to inspect entire containers of cargo are confined primarily to areas along the US-Canadian border and major US seaports. In addition, cargo planes are not subjected to the same stringent security measures on the ground that passenger planes undergo.

Read the full story here.

Posted by David on September 10, 2003 10:52 PM