Woman Charged After Running on San Francisco International Airport Runway

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.

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.