A stowaway made it onto Delta Air Lines flight 264 from New York JFK to Paris on Tuesday night – and the airline didn’t find her until they were nearly ready to land, as first reported by aviation watchdog JonNYC.
She managed to get through security without a boarding pass (so TSA botched things first) and then boarded the aircraft without showing credentials to do so either.
Delta’s New York JFK Terminal 4 Security Checkpoint
The flight was completely sold out, so no seats were available to her, but she reportedly hid in a lavatory for takeoff but eventually drew suspicion because she would leave “one lavatory and then just going into a different one…staying inside for a long time.”
Of course that happened to me once after I got food poisoning, but it’s enough reason to at least ask questions. They did, discovered the woman was a stowaway, and the captain had authorities meet the aircraft on arrival. They boarded the aircraft, and passengers were all required to stay seated at the end of the long flight while the issue was addressed.
— JonNYC (@xjonnyc.bsky.social) November 27, 2024 at 12:27 PM
According to the TSA,
TSA can confirm that an individual without a boarding pass completed the airport security screening without any prohibited items. The individual bypassed two identity verification and boarding status stations and was able to board the aircraft.
For its part, Delta Air Lines offers,
Nothing is of greater importance than matters of safety and security. That’s why Delta is conducting an exhaustive investigation of what may have occurred and will work collaboratively with other aviation stakeholders and law enforcement to that end.
Back in March, a stowaway was caught flying Delta Air Lines from Salt Lake City to Austin. They found him after he snapped a photo of a child’s boarding pass and used it to get on the plane and then hid in the lavatory. It turns out it was a full flight so there was no empty seat to sit in, and the plane turned around and went back to the gate. The child’s boarding pass had errored as already having been used, but the gate agent overrode it and let the kid board anyway.
Then, in April, there was a Delta flight with two different sets of stowaways. And this all came months after a Russian without ticket, passport or visa flew to Los Angeles without anyone noticing. Here, a serial stowaway explains how she does it.
These are innocuous incidents…but imagine if someone wanted to do harm.
Seems pretty easy to bypass the system.
And if you paid off a caterer to smuggle on some weapons… .
Sounds like a good movie plot.
She completed TSA security screening. She bypassed the ID check step, which is not security. It is revenue protection for airlines to make sure you don’t transfer your ticket to somebody else.
With holiday crowds in full swing, with all kinds of people entering the security checkpoint from all directions, it’s not hard to see how somebody could slip through the ID step.
I can see not addressing the issue until the end of the flight once you have taken off. No passenger seats were available and she would have needed a seat.
I really want a follow up after this security incident and see who gets fired! From TSA agents to FA’s
Find out!
Tell us!
For a Premium Airline should this have happened?
3rd “security” step bypassed … FAs checking and locking lavatories on take off
No doubt Delta will find a way to blame anybody but themselves for this. That’s just how they operate.
Wow, what a wild story! It’s incredible (and a bit concerning) to hear about a stowaway on a packed flight. I can only imagine the chaos that must have ensued! It raises questions about airport security and how something like this could happen. Has there been any follow-up on how the airline is addressing this situation? It would be interesting to see what measures they might implement to prevent it in the future.