A stowaway somehow made it onto a Delta Air Lines flight Tuesday from New York City to Paris without a boarding pass, officials confirmed.
The woman boarded Delta Flight No. 264 from John F. Kennedy International Airport to Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport, CBS News learned. She was discovered while the plane was in midair and was taken into custody 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 just waiting for the police to come on board, they may be here now, and they’ve directed us to keep everyone on the airplane until we sort out the extra passenger that’s on the plane.”
The circumstances of how she was found were unclear, and her name was not immediately released.
A Transportation Security Administration source told CBS News that the woman went through an advanced imaging technology body scanner at a checkpoint in JFK Airport after somehow appearing to evade the document and ID check portion of the TSA process. Her bags were also scanned for prohibited items before she went to the gate and snuck onto the flight, the source said.
In a statement provided to CBS News, a TSA spokesperson said that it could “confirm that an individual without a boarding pass completed the airport security screening without any prohibited items. The individual bypassed two identity verification and boarding status stations and was able to board the aircraft.”
In order to be present at an airline departure gate for boarding, an individual must have cleared a TSA security checkpoint.
After getting through TSA security, it’s unclear how exactly the woman boarded the Boeing 767-400ER without showing a boarding pass or passport to Delta staff.
“Nothing is of greater importance than matters of safety and security,” Delta said in a statement. “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.”
French law enforcement and the TSA are separately investigating. The woman could be subject to a civil penalty or fine for bypassing the document check process.
There is new technology known as e-gates that are being rolled out at airports which involves using biometrics to check travel documents as part of the international departure boarding process. Such technology would have caught the stowaway.
