Travel

Stowaway sneaks onto Delta Air Lines flight from NYC to Paris; flies without boarding pass

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4 hours ago

November 28, 2024

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Stowaway sneaks onto Delta Air Lines flight from NYC to Paris; flies without boarding pass

This story was updated to fix a typo.

A Delta Air Lines flight from New York City’s JFK International Airport landed at Paris’ Charles de Gaulle Airport with a stowaway on board, the airline confirmed to USA TODAY Thursday.

The incident occurred on Delta flight 264 from New York to Paris on Tuesday, one of the three busiest travel days during Thanksgiving week, according to the Transportation Security Administration. The agency, in a news release, last week said it expected to screen 18.3 million people during the “busiest Thanksgiving travel period on record.”

The individual, who has not been identified, was “physically screened without any prohibited items,” “bypassed two identity verification and boarding status stations and boarded the aircraft” despite not having a boarding pass, a TSA spokesperson David Fitz told USA TODAY Thursday.

Fitz said an investigation is ongoing. According to an ABC News report, the stowaway was discovered during the flight and removed after the plane landed in Paris.

It remains unclear how the person managed to bypass security and board the plane. TSA and Delta declined to provide further details. It is also not known where the individual was located on the plane and if they were taken into custody by the police.

“TSA takes any incidents that occur at any of our checkpoints nationwide seriously,” the agency said in a statement. “TSA will independently review the circumstances of this incident at our travel document checker station at JFK.”

Stowaway hid in lavatory, passenger says

Rob Jackson, a NYC-based real estate broker, who was one of the passengers on the flight, in a story on Instagram, wrote: “Soooo…we landed in Paris and the crew told us we had to remain seated while the French border police come onto the plane.”

“We somehow flew all the way from New York to Paris with a stowaway,” Jackson wrote. “This woman somehow got on the plane and hid in a lavatory during takeoff and wasn’t detected until we were about to land.”

Jackson also shared a video of the captain announcing that police were coming on board to “sort out the extra passenger that’s on the plane.”

“Folks, this is the captain, we are just waiting for the police to come on board,” the pilot can be heard saying in the video. “They may be here now, and they directed us to keep everyone on the airplane until we sort out the extra passenger that’s on the plane.”

Delta Air Lines, in a statement, asserted the company is “conducting an exhaustive investigation” into the incident.

“Nothing is of greater importance than matters of safety and security,” the airline said. “That’s why Delta is conducting an exhaustive investigation of what may have occurred and will work collaboratively with other aviation stakeholders and law enforcement to that end.”

Saman Shafiq is a trending news reporter for USA TODAY. Reach her at sshafiq@gannett.com and follow her on X and Instagram @saman_shafiq7.