I was wondering the same thing. Not only is he only nine years old, he was by himself, wasn't he? I don't have much experience with this, but a long time ago when my daughter was 12 she made a trip by herself from Nashville to Orlando and we had to go through all kinds of paperwork for her to fly as an "unaccompanied minor". They may have changed some of this by now, but she had to be on a direct flight, no stop-overs or changing planes, and we had to give all kinds of information on who was allowed to pick her up when she got to Orlando. The airline personnel never left her alone for even a minute. They seated her next to an old lady who never moved once during the whole trip ... in fact, she was afraid for a while that the lady was dead (she wasn't)! They kept a close eye on her during the flight and when she got there, her aunt had to show I.D. and sign for her like she was a little package! Then when she came back home, the whole process was reversed. That makes it all the harder to believe that a 9 year old just waltzed his little self on a plane by himself with no ticket! There was an article in the paper about this today ... wasn't it saying that he made more than one flight...?