Another stowaway is caught on a Delta flight this holiday season – raising major concerns about airport security

CNN
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Another stowaway managed to board a major airline’s plane – again raising serious questions and concerns about airport security during the busiest travel season of the year.

This time, a stowaway attempted to ride Delta Air Lines Flight 487 at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport on Christmas Eve.

The ticketless passenger was discovered while the plane was still taxiing for takeoff to Honolulu, Delta Air Lines told CNN. The Transportation Security Administration and the Port of Seattle confirmed the incident to CNN.

The incident came less than a month after another stowaway boarded a Delta flight during Thanksgiving week. This ticketless passenger made it from New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport to Paris before she was eventually arrested.

And on Christmas Eve, a body was found in the wheel well of a United Airlines plane shortly after it took off from Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport and landed in Maui.

According to the Federal Aviation Administration, hiding in an airplane’s wheel well is the most common method used by stowaways. Stowaways are often crushed when the landing gear retracts, and oxygen levels drop as a plane reaches higher altitudes.

In the Seattle incident, the stowaway passed through a TSA security checkpoint the night before the flight but did not have a boarding pass in hand, an airport spokesman told CNN.

The next day, the person “gained access to the dock without having a scanned ticket at the gate,” said Perry Cooper, media manager at the airport.

After the person was spotted, the Airbus A321neo returned to the gate to remove the ticketless passenger, Delta said.

Port of Seattle police officers were dispatched to the airport’s Gate B1 around 1:05 p.m. to report “a suspicious circumstance” on the Delta flight.

“The aircraft returned to the terminal and the individual exited the aircraft,” the Port of Seattle said. “Using video surveillance, POSPD was able to locate the individual in a terminal restroom. The person was arrested for trespassing.”

It was not immediately clear why authorities did not wait at the gate for the stowaway to disembark.

The ticketless passenger did not have any prohibited items on him, the TSA told CNN.

“The aircraft was swept by K9 as well as all areas of the terminal that the individual entered,” the Port of Seattle said. “The aircraft was deplaned and all passengers were escorted by TSA to return to the security checkpoint for rescreening.”

Delta said the flight was delayed by two hours and 15 minutes. After the new screening we continued to Honolulu at 3 p.m

“Because there is nothing more important than safety, Delta employees followed procedures to remove a ticketless passenger from the flight and then arrest him,” the Atlanta-based airline said in a statement. “We apologize to our customers for the delay in their travel and thank them for their patience and cooperation.”

The TSA said it “takes seriously any incidents that occur at any of our checkpoints across the country. “TSA will independently review the circumstances of this incident at our travel document inspection site in Seattle/Tacoma International.”

CNN’s Holly Yan, Pete Muntean, Alexandra Skores, Amanda Musa and Nicole Chavez contributed to this report.