Boy who hopped flights caught again at Sea-Tac

The boy who talked his way onto airline flights to Texas last year has attempted another getaway.

A Seattle TV station, KING, reports Semaj Booker was stopped today by the Transportation Security Administration at a Seattle-Tacoma International Airport gate after he failed to show a boarding pass. His mother had reported him missing to Tacoma police at 3 a.m.

Perry Cooper, a spokesman for the airport and the Port of Seattle Police Department, wouldn't confirm that it was Semaj who tried to board a Southwest Airlines flight this morning because Cooper is not authorized to identify juveniles. Still, Cooper said video footage shows a 10-year-old boy "going through the proper screening process" to get through security — even though he should've been turned away because he didn't have a boarding pass.

TSA is now investigating the breach, Cooper said.

As passengers were boarding a 6:35 a.m. flight to Sacramento, Calif., the boy told an agent, "I'm with that guy in front of me," Cooper said. "Basically, he was trying to tailgate with someone in front of him."

The man told staff he didn't know the boy and wasn't traveling with him, Cooper said.

The boy was taken into protective custody until officers determined he had been reported missing in Tacoma, Cooper said. Officers took him home to his mother.

"He was rather uncommunicative to our officers — really the only thing he said was that he was trying to get to Dallas," Cooper said.

It will be up to King County prosecutors to decide whether to file charges, but as of this afternoon a case had not been referred to them, said spokesman Dan Donohoe.

In January 2007 when he was 9, Semaj got through airport security and made it to San Antonio with a stop in Phoenix. Days before he had stolen and crashed a car.

His mother told authorities he was unhappy living in Lakewood and wanted to be with his grandfather in Dallas.

A judge convicted Semaj of car theft last July but said he wouldn't have to go to juvenile detention if he stayed out of trouble for a year.