A Stowaway Flew from New York to Paris without a Ticket, Officials Say
A woman flew from New York’s JFK International Airport to Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport without a boarding pass on Tuesday, but was discovered towards the end of the flight. The stowaway managed to evade security checks at JFK Airport, including an advanced imaging technology body scanner, and boarded the plane without being detected.
The woman bypassed two identity verification and boarding status stations before boarding the plane, and was not carrying any prohibited items. It is unclear how she was discovered, but authorities were alerted during the descent process.
A passenger on the flight, Rob Jackson, described the journey as normal until the descent process began, when the flight attendants’ intercoms started going off repeatedly. The captain announced over the intercom that they were waiting for police to remove an extra passenger on board.
Once the plane landed, six or seven police officers boarded the plane, and a flight attendant revealed that the stowaway had been going from one lavatory to the other during the flight. Officials took the woman into custody upon arrival in France.
Delta Airlines has launched an investigation into the incident, saying that “nothing is of greater importance than matters of safety and security.” The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is also investigating how the stowaway managed to evade security checks at JFK Airport.