He was Never in the Wheel Well.

Amazed that a 16 year old boy survived temperatures of fifty degrees below zero with virtually no oxygen for five & a half hours? Me, too. In fact, I'd kinda like to see some proof. I expect someone responsible to convince me that this is truth. Show me that this isn't just a story written to persuade people that they'd be better off paying higher airline fees & taxes & giving up a liberty or two....you know, for safety's sake.

While there are plenty of sources claiming this story is true, there are plenty of reasons in your very own brain to withhold your belief. Just ask some questions.

Questions about the flight:  

• Could someone really just hop the fence at an airport & get onto the tarmac?
• Where are the eyewitness reports? (Flight crew, passengers, hundreds of people staring out the giant windows overlooking the tarmac...surely somebody saw something & called attention to it.) 
• Could a person ACTUALLY fit in the cavity, or is that just a theory?
• IF a person COULD actually fit into the wheel well, would the person be safe? Is the area full of noxious fumes, heat, or mechanical elements that could crush a person?
• Why aren't the airline workers who supposedly spotted the boy & alerted authorities being interviewed?

Questions about the boy:

• How could a 16 year old know that there was a boy-sized compartment in an airline's wheel well? (They say he ran away from a heated family argument...did he then hit Google looking for incredibly bizarre & dangerous hiding places?)
• Why aren't his parents being interviewed/ hounded by the media?
• Why is the boy not facing any charges from law enforcement, the airline, or the airports?
• Why aren't the parents facing any charges?

Questions about the human body: 

• Can a person survive 50 degrees below zero in just a T shirt & jeans? For how long?
• How cold does a person have to be for five and a half hours before frostbite occurs? 
• How cold does a person have to be for five and a half hours before organ failure or loss of extremities?
• How long can a person survive with virtually no oxygen (15%)?

When we think of airports, most Americans think of security...long lines, removing shoes, plastic tubs full of our pocket contents, cameras everywhere, & the examination of every personal nook & cranny via everything from X-rays to mysterious puffs of air. It seems reasonable, then, to ask
Where is the footage:

•  of the boy hopping the fence?
• of him running across the apron?
• of him climbing into the wheel well?
• of him getting out of the wheel well?
•  of the plane taking off/landing with him in it?

Hell...why is there only one picture of the boy or the entire event, & why we can't see his face? Why can't we see any details that might actually identify where the image was shot?

Keep in mind, footage doesn't necessarily prove anything. Last year I saw footage of Sandra Bullock surviving a catastrophe in outer space, but it was all fake. Anything can be faked. But the very absence of footage is more than enough cause for suspicion. And somebody in the media, the airlines, or law enforcement knows this, because they went to the trouble to make the spurious claim that this footage exists.

In fact, just in case you're the curious type & insist on seeing it, Google will lead you to an ABC News page where they have a big headline:

"Stowaway Seen on Video Exiting Plane's Wheel Well After Death-Defying Flight"

But the footage just isn't there. 
Check the link for yourself. And that's the only source claiming the footage even exists.

There are a LOT more questions to ask about this story, but the main question would have to be "Why?" Why would this clearly-fake story be released in all the major media outlets? Whenever something in the news doesn't feel right, ask yourself who stands to benefit. I'll take a stab & say it's a stunt to give the airlines a big boost of federal dollars (plus a few extra bucks from the passengers' wallets) to help everybody feel safe. I mean, isn't everybody already wanting to know if a terrorist could slip a bomb up in there? NOTHING makes money like fear does.

Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe it did happen. But as it stands now, the lack of evidence far outweighs the evidence.

For other "Where is the footage?"-type conspiracy stories, try to find the footage of:

• The suspects placing bombs at the Boston Marathon
• The Pentagon being hit with an airliner on 9/11/01
• Adam Lanza in the halls of Sandy Hook elementary 
• A protest turning violent outside the US consulate in Benghazi on 9/11/12