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U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens said Thursday he will introduce legislation if another solution isn't found to prevent unaccompanied kids from boarding planes without their parents' consent.

He's hoping, however, that the airline industry and the Federal Aviation Administration will solve the problem first.

Last week, Stevens, R-Alaska, urged U.S. Secretary of Transportation Mary Peters and acting Federal Aviation Administrator Robert Sturgell to close a policy loophole that allowed a 15-year-old Juneau girl to buy an airline ticket without her parents' approval and board an airplane last year without identification.

"I just really think anyone that's concerned about their families would worry about this happening, and young people are very capable of going and buying a ticket and disappearing," Stevens said last week during a Commerce Committee oversight hearing on the Department of Transportation's fiscal year 2009 budget. "I just don't think that ought to be possible."

The senator had previously discussed the issue with Peters during a Commerce Committee oversight hearing in October. Last week, Peters and Sturgell said they had not personally discussed the unaccompanied minor policies with the airline industry.

"Well, it seems the only alternative then is to legislate," Stevens told them. "You know legislation is going to put you in a straightjacket. You know that, don't you?"

Peters responded at the Feb. 28 hearing: "Senator, let me commit to you today. We will move forward with your request and see what kind of documentation we can develop. We will work with you and your staff to determine the most appropriate path forward."

During an interview on Thursday, Stevens said he feels confident that the governmental agencies and the airline industry will be able to sufficiently address the unaccompanied minor policies on their own. If they do not, however, he said he is prepared to introduce a bill to close the loophole, possibly in the form of an amendment on another bill involving children's safety.

"I asked Secretary Peters and I think we got a commitment from her to try and work out a solution, and we've also talked to some of the industry about their solutions," Stevens said.

He doesn't have a specific timeline set for changes.

"We got to give it some time," he said.

Air Transport Association, a trade organization that represents the major U.S. airlines, has the issue on its radar, spokeswoman Victoria Day said.

"We appreciate the concerns raised by the senator and we will work with his office to secure an appropriate resolution," she said in an e-mail statement.

Elise Pringle, mother of the 15-year-old Juneau girl who flew unaccompanied, said she supports Stevens' actions to close the loophole. She firmly believes more safeguards should be in place to prevent other families from going through a similar terrifying experience.

"It just needs to be implemented all the way across the board, and that's with anything - traveling on a bus, traveling on a train, traveling on our ferry," she said. "Of course it should be there. If you are a traveling minor, you need parental consent."

In August, the Juneau teenager was able to purchase an Alaska Airlines ticket with cash, consistent with the company's unaccompanied minor service that allows minors age 13 to 17 to buy tickets and fly unaccompanied without the knowledge of parents or guardians. After flying to Seattle with the intent of meeting a "boyfriend" she met over the Internet, Seattle-Tacoma Airport police convinced the girl to return to Alaska before she could board her connecting flight to the East Coast.

The loophole needs to be closed because adults are responsible for the well-being of children, Pringle said. The airline industry's present unaccompanied minor polices are not just a threat to children in Juneau or Alaska, she said.

"It comes down to a hole in our system and that system is nationwide," Pringle said.

Stevens said it would be a difficult issue to legislate on, but said he hopes an agreement can be reached with the government agencies and the airline industry. He said he would like to see that either parents or guardians accompany minors while purchasing an airline ticket, or have some kind of proof that the traveling minors have parental approval.

"We hope they're working out a way to achieve the goal," Stevens said Thursday.

As a father and a grandfather, he said this should be an issue that parents should have concern about, particularly in the Internet age where people have been known to exploit minors online.

"I think that'd be a terrible thing to find out that one of your children went down and bought a plane ticket and got on a plane and went somewhere without your permission, particularly under the circumstance it happened with that young lady there in Juneau," Stevens said.

• Contact reporter Eric Morrison at 523-2269 or eric.morrison@juneauempire.com.