The stowaway somehow made it onto a Delta Air Lines flight Tuesday from New York City to Paris without getting through, officials said.
A woman boarded Delta Flight No. 264 from John F. Kennedy International Airport to Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport, CBS News has learned. He was found mid-flight and arrested in Paris.
In a social media video posted by a passenger, the captain can be heard over the plane's intercom – after the plane landed in Paris – telling flyers that “we're waiting for the police to come in, they might be here now, and they've instructed us to keep everyone on the plane until we can sort out the extra passenger on the plane.”
A flight attendant found the suspect when the plane was full, but not sold after repeated and prolonged visits to the lavatories of the Boeing 767-400ER, according to a source familiar with the incident. The 767-400 is a wide-body aircraft and is one of the largest in Delta's fleet with 238 seats in the carrier's configuration.
Flight attendants have access to the flight manifest, which includes a list of passengers and seat numbers, allowing staff to confirm that the woman is a suspected fraudster and does not have a ticket. Three pilots and eight crew members were on the plane on Tuesday, according to the source. Delta did not disclose the number of passengers, citing an ongoing investigation into the incident.
The woman's name has not been released.
A Transportation Security Administration source told CBS News that the woman went through a high-tech scanner at a checkpoint at JFK Airport after she somehow appeared to evade the document and ID check part of the TSA process. His bags were also checked for illegal items before he went to the gate and slipped on the plane, the source said.
In a statement provided to CBS News, a TSA spokesperson said “it can confirm that a person who does not have the right to board was screened without prohibited items. The person passed two stations to verify identity and boarding conditions and then boarded the plane.”
“TSA takes seriously any incidents that occur at any of our checkpoints around the country,” a spokesperson said. “TSA will independently review the circumstances of this incident at our JFK travel document screening facility.”
In order to be present at the airline's departure gate for boarding, each person must clear the TSA security checkpoint.
After going through TSA security, it's unclear how the woman got on the plane without showing a boarding pass or passport to Delta employees.
“Nothing is more important than matters of safety and security,” Delta said in a statement. “That's why Delta is conducting a thorough investigation into what may have happened and will work with other aviation stakeholders and law enforcement to accomplish that.”
French law enforcement and the TSA are investigating separately. A woman may be fined or fined for bypassing the document verification process.
There is a new technology known as e-gates being deployed at airports that involves using biometrics to check travel documents as part of the immigration process. Such technology would have caught the stowaway.
In March, a certain man removed from a Delta flight authorities said he sneaked into Salt Lake City after going through security with a boarding pass for a different airline, which turned out to be full. In February, a woman who was also screened flew on an American Airlines flight from Nashville, Tennessee, to Los Angeles without a ticket and was detained upon arrival, officials said.
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