Flying to Rome without passport was easy, says boy

London, July 26 (IANS) An 11-year-old boy who had no passport or boarding pass and flew to Rome alone after walking unchallenged through airport security says "getting on the plane was easier than doing my homework".

In an interview to The Sun Wednesday he said: "No one asked me for anything."

Liam Corcoran-Fort said he climbed on a Jet2 plane looking for a loo after slipping away from his mum outside Manchester Airport.

Five staff have been suspended over the shambles just before the Olympics.

Liam said: "Getting on the plane was easier than doing my homework."

The incident exposed shocking lapses of security at the airport on the eve of the Olympic Games, the newspaper said.

His shaken mum Mary - who thought Liam had been abducted after he slipped away from her in a shop near the airport - told how police searching for the boy phoned her more than four hours after he vanished to say: "We've found your son - he's in Rome."

Liam breezed through five security checks at the airport wearing a Spiderman T-shirt, tracksuit bottoms and flip-flops.

The jet was more than half way into its 1,500-mile flight to Rome before Liam was detected. After a brief time in the Italian capital, he was put on a plane home.