Former Coventry schoolboy who stowed away on US plane reveals life of adventure

Dec 11 2011 by Mike Lockley, Sunday Mercury

HE was the schoolboy who made headlines around the world after reaching America as a passenger jet stowaway.

But now Philip Davison – dubbed ‘‘the boy who couldn’t stop running away’’ – has finally put down permanent roots.

Forty years since the transatlantic adventure that earned the 15-year-old celebrity status and a slot on the David Frost show, he is set embark on a new challenge – in the legal profession.

The 56-year-old is studying law at Oxford and, once he becomes a fully-fledged barrister, intends to fight for the homeless.

The boy who railed against an unhappy home life and the harsh regime of care homes has, against all odds, ‘done good’.

His is an incredible story that would be dubbed far-fetched if pushed forward as a soap opera plotline. Schoolboys dream of adventures in far-off places, but Philip lived the dream.

Gripped by wanderlust, the teenager:

HHid on a Pan-Am jet to New York, then slipped undetected onto a Florida-bound plane;

HSpent time shackled in a Swiss adult prison after being discovered wandering barefoot in Berne;

HEscaped death after being found by a mountain rescue team’s St Bernard dog, shivering in the snow-covered Alps;

HReached Denmark by hiding under the tarpaulin of a ship’s lifeboat.

Speaking from his Coventry home, Philip said: “I’m the cat who had nine lives – and I’ve used up most of those.

“It’s what I had to do to survive. It was either run away or be treated badly on a daily basis. It was fight or flight.”