news

Emma's 12-year-old son told her he was going to school, instead he boarded a plane to Bali.

When 12-year-old boy in Sydney was told he and his family weren’t going to Bali, he refused to accept it.

Taking matters into his own hands, the boy called Drew – whose story is being told on tonight’s program of A Current Affair – used his parents’ credit card to book plane tickets for himself, as well as accommodation, and travelled to Bali alone on a four day “adventure”.

Now, his mother, Emma, is looking for answers, saying she’s “shocked and disgusted” at the airlines involved.

Admittedly, the level of premeditation in Drew’s actions is astounding.

He researched the airlines that permit 12-year-olds to travel alone. He packed his school bag on the morning of his flight, telling his parents he was going to school as usual. Instead, he used his scooter to get to the station to catch a train to the airport.

Before this, he had persuaded his grandmother into giving him his passport and had used the self-check in service to ensure he wouldn’t see any airline staff before actually boarding the plane.

“There’s no emotion to feel what we felt when we found out that he’d left overseas,” Emma tells A Current Affair, adding her son “just doesn’t like the word ‘no'”.

“That’s what I got, a kid in Indonesia,” she said.

ADVERTISEMENT

WATCH: The preview for tonight’s episode here, from A Current Affair.

Drew was a little put off by the stop over in Perth – telling Channel Nine he’d “gotten the flights cheap” – but, upon arriving in Indonesia, he took himself to the Four Seasons hotel where he told reception staff he was checking in before his sister was due to arrive.

“It was great because I wanted to go on an adventure,” he told Channel Nine, News Corp reports.

But Emma is demanding answers. How was a 12-year-old permitted to fly internationally alone, without anyone thinking to ask: “Where is your mum or dad?”

Even upon presenting his passport at the layover in Perth, Drew wasn’t questioned.

“They just asked for my student ID and passport to prove that I’m over 12 and that I’m in secondary school,” he said.