Delta Air Lines reportedly refused to transport the now infamous Paris stowaway suspect back to the United States on a Tuesday afternoon flight after she had already boarded the plane at Charles de Gaulle Airport.
The 57-year-old Russian woman managed to sneak past multiple security checks and get onboard a Delta flight from New York JFK to Paris last Tuesday without being detected until the flight was nearly over.
After being detained by French police, the woman attempted to claim asylum, but the authorities quickly rejected her application, and she was refused immigration clearance into Europe.
Airlines are commonly required to repatriate passengers who are refused entry back to the country that they were last lawfully in, and the woman was initially booked on a Saturday afternoon Delta Air Lines flight from Paris back to New York JFK.
That attempt at removing the woman from France had to be abandoned, however, after she reportedly started to shout and cause a disturbance on the plane before it had even taken off.
The French authorities returned the woman to custody and made arrangements for a second removal attempt on Tuesday afternoon, again on Delta flight DL265 to New York JFK.
Once onboard the aircraft, however, Delta apparently refused to transport the woman, despite the fact that she was being escorted by six US marshals.
The woman managed to get on the Delta flight to Paris last Tuesday night after managing to evade two identity verification and boarding status stations. A spokesperson for the TSA noted, however, that the woman who have undergone standard security checks and would not have been in possession of any prohibited items.
Officials have not confirmed how the woman managed to avoid detection by Delta gate agents or flight attendants, although the leading theory is that the woman hid in the onboard lavatories for most of the flight.
Flight attendants were supposed to check the lavatories before the aircraft left the gate to ensure that there was no one inside.
Although commercial airlines are often required to transport passengers who have been refused entry into a country back to their home country, sometimes the person’s behavior makes it nearly impossible to do so.
In some cases where a detainee is likely to be disruptive, an escort will be tasked with accompanying them on the return flight, although even that sometimes isn’t enough to ensure that the repatriation process runs smoothly.
If Delta is unable to accommodate the woman on one of its flights, then it may be required to cover the costs of chartering a plane to transport the woman all the way back to the United States.
The airline did not, however, immediately respond to a request for comment on Tuesday’s events.
