Another Shining Moment For Security Screeners

A brazen 10-year-old boy with a track record of talking his way onto airliners was caught when he tried it again Tuesday, according to the Transportation Security Administration.

The Associated Press reports security tapes show Semaj Booker passing through a metal detector before 5:00 am at a checkpoint at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. His mother, who lives with Semaj in the Tacoma suburb of Lakewood, had reported him missing at 3:00 am.

Sea-Tac airport spokesman Perry Cooper says the boy was detained at 6:35 am while trying to board a Southwest Airlines flight to Sacramento, CA, claiming to be travelling with a man in front of him in line. TSA is investigating to find out how he got that far without showing a boarding pass at the security checkpoint.

Semaj reportedly told officers he was trying to get to Dallas. As ANN reported, in January 2007 the boy talked his way onto a Southwest flight by saying his mother was already in the boarding area. He somehow changed planes in Phoenix and flew to San Antonio before being discovered.

At that time, his mother said Semaj was unhappy living in Lakewood and wanted to be with his grandfather in Dallas. Just days before that attempt, Semaj, who was then 9 years old, 4-foot-9 and 80 pounds, stole and crashed a car in another apparent runaway attempt. He was convicted of car theft last July, but the judge told him he could avoid serving time in a juvenile detention center if he stayed out of trouble for a year.

That sentence could now be reinstated, and Cooper says King County, WA prosecutors may file new charges. If that's the case... well, perhaps the security checkpoints at the juvenile detention center prove more effective than TSA's.

Either that... or, well, Semaj could make it big in the aviation world. Given his obvious skill with words, perhaps he could have a bright future selling pre-paid helicopter flight instruction...

FMI: www.tsa.gov, www.southwest.com