Passenger without ticket gets onto Delta flight from Seattle to Honolulu on Christmas Eve
A passenger without a ticket was found on board one of Delta's planes on Christmas Eve, officials with the airline said.
This comes just weeks after a stowaway was caught on a different Delta flight. The passenger in this week's incident went through standard security screenings but bypassed the identity verification and boarding status stations and got onto a plane, an Airbus A321neo, at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, according to the Transportation Security Administration.
Though the flight was on Christmas Eve, investigators determined the unticketed passenger had gotten through a security checkpoint a day earlier on Monday evening, Port of Seattle Police said. The passenger "gained access to the loading bridge without a scanned ticket at the gate," said Port of Seattle Police.
The unticketed passenger was found before Flight 487 took off for Honolulu, but while the plane was taxiing out onto the runway, according to the airline.
According to the police officials, the would-be stowaway got off the plane when it returned to the gate, and was located by police in a terminal bathroom with the help of video surveillance. The unticketed passenger was arrested for criminal trespass and booked into South Correctional Entity jail in Des Moines, Washington, according to the Port of Seattle.
The individual has not yet been publicly identified.
The flight was delayed 2 hours and 15 minutes while TSA did extra security checks, including rescreening customers. Police said the aircraft was swept by K9 dogs, in addition to areas in the terminal accessed by the unticketed passenger.
TSA is still investigating how the would-be stowaway managed to get on the plane without presenting a boarding pass.
In the case last month, involving a Delta flight from New York City to Paris, Svetlana Dali tried to get in a line at the Transportation Security Administration checkpoint, but she was turned away when she couldn't show a boarding pass, according to a criminal complaint. She then successfully sneaked through a short time later after allegedly "entering through a special lane for airline employees masked by a large Air Europa flight crew."
"Delta agents, who were busy helping ticketed passengers board, did not stop her or ask her to present a boarding pass before she boarded the plane," according to the criminal complaint.
Dali was detained in Paris and flew back to New York on Dec. 4. She was taken into custody and faces charges of obtaining transportation on an aircraft without consent or permission. Dali was later arrested in Buffalo, on a bus to Canada, after allegedly cutting off her ankle monitor.
