Delta apologizes – again – after another stowaway boards a flight without a ticket: NPR

FILE – A Delta Air Lines aircraft leaves the gate at Logan International Airport in Boston on July 12, 2021. A Delta flight from Seattle to Honolulu was delayed Tuesday afternoon after a ticketless passenger was discovered aboard the plane.

Michael Dwyer/AP

Hide caption

Toggle label

Michael Dwyer/AP

Delta Air Lines is investigating how a ticketless passenger boarded a flight from Seattle to Honolulu on Christmas Eve – the airline’s second stowaway incident in less than a month.

The passenger, whose identity has not been released, was spotted as Delta Air Lines Flight 487 taxied from the gate. They had bypassed both a TSA security checkpoint and boarding gate ticketing.

Details of the security breach remain unclear, raising broader concerns about aviation safety.

“Because there is nothing more important than safety, Delta employees followed procedures to remove a ticketless passenger from the flight and then arrest them,” a Delta Air Lines spokesperson told NPR.

“We apologize to our customers for the delay in their travel and thank them for their patience and cooperation.”

Port of Seattle Police reported that the individual passed through a TSA checkpoint on Dec. 23 without a boarding pass but was “properly screened.”

After being spotted on the plane the next day, the plane returned to the terminal. The person fled and hid in a toilet before being arrested for trespassing. They are being held at the South Correctional Entity Jail in Washington state.

The plane took off two hours late.

A TSA spokesperson confirmed that the agency is conducting its own review of the breach.

TSA travel document examiners typically use Credential Authentication Technology, a document scanner, to verify flight status against IDs, but may also request boarding passes as an additional measure.

This incident follows a similar case weeks earlier, when a Russian citizen, Svetlana Dali, 57, boarded a Delta flight from New York to Paris without a boarding pass or passport during the busy Thanksgiving travel season.

An investigation found that Dali joined a flight crew to bypass a security checkpoint at JFK Airport and later evaded boarding pass checks by Delta employees on the fully booked flight. She hid in a toilet during the flight and was arrested by French police upon arrival.

Dali was arrested again in the US days later after she cut off her ankle monitor and tried to enter Canada.