A Delta Air Lines flight nearly left Seattle for Honolulu with a stowaway on Christmas Eve, a month after another person successfully took a Delta flight from New York to Paris without a boarding pass.
An airline spokesperson confirmed to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution in a statement that “Delta people followed procedures to have an unticketed passenger removed from the flight and then apprehended.”
The passenger, whose name has not been released, was detected as the plane taxied to the runway at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, at which point the plane returned to the gate.
According to an airport spokesperson, the passenger managed to exit the aircraft but was ultimately found in an airport bathroom by law enforcement with the help of video surveillance, charged with criminal trespass and booked into jail.
The airport has determined the individual passed through a security screening the night of Dec. 23 without a boarding pass. The next day, on Christmas Eve, they managed to enter the loading bridge of the airplane without a scanned boarding pass for the scheduled 12:45 p.m. PST flight.
The Transportation Security Administration confirmed to the AJC the suspect passed through standard screening without prohibited items but managed to skip the identity verification and boarding status stations.
The agency “will independently review the circumstances of this incident at our travel document checker station at Seattle-Tacoma International,” an agency spokesperson said in a statement.
A month ago, a Russian woman without a boarding pass managed to stowaway on a Delta flight from New York to Paris until the plane had almost reached France.
A criminal complaint against her alleged that she made it through security without a boarding pass by entering a special lane for airline employees at the same time a large flight crew walked through, and then boarded the plane without a ticket while Delta gate agents were helping other passengers board.
The Seattle-Honolulu flight, DL 487, ultimately departed 2 hours and 15 minutes late after all passengers had been deplaned and then rescreened by TSA.
TSA and Delta investigations are ongoing.
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