A stowaway managed to board a Delta Air Lines flight from New York to Paris without a boarding pass on Tuesday, officials confirmed.
The woman boarded Delta Flight No. 264 from John F. Kennedy International Airport to Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport, CBS News has learned. She was discovered while the plane was in flight and taken into police custody in Paris.
In a video on social networks Posted by a passenger, the captain can be heard on the plane’s intercom – after the plane landed in Paris – telling the flyers that “we’re just waiting for the police to come on board, they may be -be there now, and they ordered we have to keep everyone on the plane until we resolve the extra passenger that is on the plane.
The circumstances in which she was found are unclear and her name was not immediately released.
A Transportation Security Administration source told CBS News that the woman passed through an advanced imaging technology body scanner at a JFK airport checkpoint after appearing to somehow escape to the document and identity verification portion of the TSA process. Her bags were also scanned for prohibited items before she showed up at the boarding gate and sneaked onto the flight, the source said.
In a statement provided to CBS News, a TSA spokesperson said it could “confirm that an individual without a boarding pass went through airport security without any prohibited items.” The individual bypassed two ID check and boarding stations and was able to board the plane.
In order to be present at an airline’s gate for boarding, a person must have passed through a TSA security checkpoint.
After passing through TSA security, it is unclear how the woman boarded the Boeing 767-400ER without presenting a boarding pass or passport to Delta staff.
“Nothing is more important than issues of safety and security,” Delta said in a statement. “That is why Delta is conducting a full investigation into what may have occurred and will work collaboratively with other aviation stakeholders and law enforcement to this end.”
French law enforcement and the TSA are investigating separately. The woman could face a civil penalty or fine for circumventing the document verification process.
There is a new technology known as e-gates, being rolled out at airports, which involves the use of biometrics to verify travel documents as part of the boarding process when departing an international flight . Such technology would have made it possible to capture the stowaway.
