SAN FRANCISCO – A woman pleaded not guilty to trespassing charges after she got onto a runway at San Francisco International Airport with plans to stow away on a jet bound for Central America, prosecutors said Friday.
Adriana Anabela Monterroso-Santos, 42, allegedly walked on a runway Wednesday and waved her arms at a plane.
Airport police quickly responded and took Monterroso-Santos into custody. She told the officers she was hoping to hide in the cargo hold of a jet headed to her home country of Guatemala, San Mateo County District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe said.
Monterroso-Santos, who was living in a homeless shelter near the airport, pleaded not guilty on Thursday, the San Francisco Chronicle reported (http://bit.ly/19imeqe).
She told officials she got the idea after hearing about a Santa Clara teenager who survived a five-hour flight from San Jose to Maui in the wheel well of a jet despite sub-zero temperatures and low oxygen levels, Wagstaffe said. The teenage boy was trying to return to his native Africa to find his mother.
It wasn't clear how Monterroso-Santos planned to identify an airplane headed to Guatemala, and Wagstaffe said his office would be looking into whether she suffered from mental health issues.
"If she needs help, we'll steer her in the right direction," he said.
Calls to officials at the airport were not immediately returned Friday.
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