Airliner Stowaway With Chicago Ties Due In Court
LOS ANGELES (CBS) -- A man with Chicago ties is due in federal court Friday, after allegedly sneaking aboard a New York-to-Los Angeles flight last week.
As WBBM Newsradio 780's Debra Dale reports, Olajide Oluwaseun Noibi, 24, had a home address in Willowbrook, and the Chicago Tribune reports his home address is listed as the base for two online businesses – Unleash Media, a marketing company for church ministries, and Dyvintel, an information technology consulting firm.
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Noibi is being held in Los Angeles, after allegedly getting on a flight with a University of Michigan student ID and a day-old boarding pass that belonged to somebody else last week.
The incident occurred a week ago on a Virgin America flight from New York's John F. Kennedy Airport to Los Angeles International Airport. Noibi was originally interviewed by authorities and then released.
After take-off, a crew member asked to see Mr. Noibi's boarding pass and noted the discrepancy and alerted the captain who immediately notified local authorities from the flight deck, whereupon law enforcement met the aircraft upon arrival," Virgin America said in a statement Thursday afternoon. "After discovery, the crew kept the subject (who was asleep for much of the flight) under surveillance, but at no time felt there was any threat to the security of the flight."
The incident is especially troubling to officials because Transportation Security Administration agents are required to match boarding passes with passenger ID's, like driver's licenses -- something that seems not to have occurred in this case.
Northwestern University professor and transportation expert Aaron Gellman said the breach is "a very black mark on TSA's reputation."
The airline said it is working with the FBI to determine how Noibi passed through airport security and boarded the flight without a proper boarding pass.
Noibi was reportedly arrested in Los Angeles on Wednesday when he was found trying to board another flight, this time bound for Atlanta and again with an invalid boarding pass. He allegedly told FBI agents that he'd lost his U.S. passport.
FBI officials said a search of his bag uncovered more than 10 other boarding passes in various names that were not his. Noibi also told agents he planned to go to Nigeria next month and return to the U.S. on Sept. 9.
No one at the Willowbrook home listed as Noibi's address had much to say about him on Thursday, although one self-described visitor acknowledged knowing him.
