A stowaway managed to sneak onboard a Delta Air Lines plane at New York JFK bound for Paris, France, and wasn’t spotted by flight attendants until the airplane was nearly at the end of its seven-hour transatlantic flight.
First reported by aviation insider Jon NYC on X and Blue Sky, the stowaway so how managed to evade gate agents and flight attendants to get on the aircraft at New York JFK despite the fact that the flight was reportedly fully booked without a spare seat onboard.
— JonNYC (@xjonnyc.bsky.social) 27 November 2024 at 18:27
Delta flight DL264 departed JFK just before 11:00 pm on Tuesday night, and landed in Paris Charles de Gaule at around 11 am on Wednesday. On arrival, passengers were instructed to remain seated as law enforcement were called to deal with the stowaway.
In a recording taken by one of the passengers on the flight, the Captain can heard saying over the public address system that they must remain seated “until we sort out the extra passenger that’s on the plane.”
The stowaway has not been identified but is believed to be a female who managed to avoid detection by hiding in one of the onboard lavatories.
A source told Jon NYC that flight attendants eventually became suspicious when the suspect would remain in a lavatory for a prolonged period of time before exiting and immediately going to another lavatory.
In a statement, a spokesperson for the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) confirmed that a person had gotten through the security checkpoint at New York JFK without a boarding pass and had then evaded detection at two separate stations before boarding the plane.
“TSA can confirm that an individual without a boarding pass completed the airport security screening without any prohibited items,” the emailed statement stated. “The individual bypassed two identity verification and boarding status stations and was able to board the aircraft.”
The spokesperson added that law enforcement is now investigating.
In response to a request for comment, Delta told us: “Nothing is of greater importance than matters of safety and security.”
“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.”
In March, a 26-year-old man managed to sneak onboard a Delta Air Lines flight in Salt Lake City without a ticket after he managed to take a picture of a young girl’s boarding pass and then use the barcode to scan himself through the boarding gate.
Wicliff Yves Fleurizard boarded the plane and immediately hid in an onboard lavatory, hoping that once everyone had finished boarding, he could leave the lavatory and take the first spare seat he spotted.
Unfortunately for Fleurizard, this flight was also fully booked, and flight attendants became suspicious when he walked up and down the aisle. Fleurizard was charged with a national security crime and faces a potential maximum sentence of ten years in prison.
It’s important to note that in both stowaway incidents, the suspects had cleared the TSA security checkpoint and would have been subjected to the same security checks as any other passenger.
Great job, JFK TSA.