A Delta transatlantic flight had an unaccounted for passenger this week, as first flagged by @xJonNYC. Amazingly enough, the plane made it most of the way to Paris before the crew caught on.
In this post:
Delta flight from New York to Paris has extra passenger
This incident happened on Tuesday, November 26, 2024, and involves Delta flight DL264 from New York (JFK) to Paris (CDG). The flight was operated by a Boeing 767-400 with the registration code N845MH.
The flight was 100% full, with every seat taken. At some point during the flight, flight attendants became suspicious, when they noticed one woman that kept moving between lavatories, and staying in them for a long time.
The flight attendants notified the pilots. After the 6hr49min flight, the plane landed at Charles de Gaulle Airport at around 11:45AM on Wednesday. Upon arriving at the gate, the captain made an announcement, asking all passengers to remain seated, as police boarded the plane:
“Folks, this is the captain, we are just waiting for the police to come on board. 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.”
— JonNYC (@xjonnyc.bsky.social) November 27, 2024 at 1:27 PM
Here’s the statement that Delta provided about the incident, confirming that the company is investigating what happened:
“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.”
Meanwhile here’s a statement provided by the TSA, confirming that a person managed to go through the security screening process without a boarding pass:
“TSA can 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.”
There are a lot more questions than answers as of now
When an incident like this happens, a lot of questions come to mind, including both motive and logistics.
What was this traveler’s motivation for sneaking onto the flight? In many developing countries, we see people take drastic and dangerous measures to be a stowaway, in hopes of a better life. However, for flights from the United States, that’s usually not the motive.
Was it mental illness of some sort, and/or a game for the person? Some may remember the Bay Area’s “serial stowaway,” who obviously fit into this category. Or did the person have some actual reason she wanted to go specifically to France, and just didn’t want to buy a ticket?
Then when it comes to logistics, how was the stowaway able to avoid the ID check at the TSA checkpoint? How was she able to avoid detection at the gate, while boarding the plane? Even worse, if every seat was taken, how did the crew miss that there was an extra person on the plane? As part of their pre-takeoff duties, flight attendants are supposed to check lavatories to make sure they’re unoccupied.
It’ll be interesting to see what an investigation reveals…
Bottom line
A Delta Boeing 767 flight from New York to Paris had an extra passenger onboard, despite every seat on the plane being occupied. A woman managed to avoid the TSA ID check, then avoided being detected at the gate, and hid in the lavatory of the plane for nearly seven hours. She was only detected when the crew noticed her constantly moving between lavatories.
A lot of things had to go wrong for something like this to happen, so hopefully an investigation can lead to some improvements. Meanwhile it’s very unlucky for this traveler that there wasn’t a single empty seat, or else she would’ve probably gotten away with it (well, potentially until she went through immigration).
What do you make of this Delta stowaway incident?
International flights get facial recognition before boarding the flight, most of the time they don't scan the boarding pass like the domestic flight. I don't know how this woman got through.
Some are blaming the TSA, the passenger could have had cheep domestic flight boarding pass. It's the gate agents responsibility to make sure only the valid ticketed passengers get boarded.
Stop blaming TSA, people! She probably couldn't afford a flight to Paris, so bought a $29 one-way on Spirit to clear security and get airside.
The failure is all on the Delta gate agents and flight crew who allowed her board without a valid boarding pass and then bog-hop for 5 hours before finally noticing.
Just goes to show how flawed the TSA are at carrying out "security". They can't even stop serial stowaways, but okay, we still have to remove shoes and put liquids in tiny containers due to some incidents that happened years back. I don't doubt the need for security to stop certain folks (I'm looking at you, for those that continue to get stopped with loaded guns). But some of this is just nonsensical.
This was...
Just goes to show how flawed the TSA are at carrying out "security". They can't even stop serial stowaways, but okay, we still have to remove shoes and put liquids in tiny containers due to some incidents that happened years back. I don't doubt the need for security to stop certain folks (I'm looking at you, for those that continue to get stopped with loaded guns). But some of this is just nonsensical.
This was a failure on the part of Delta as well. How did the cabin crew not carry out the procedure you mentioned of checking lavatories before wheels up? Thankfully, the suspect had no prohibited items, but with the TSA's high failure rate of catching them, how do you be certain?
This isn't hard. Buy a refundable ticket, go through security, call/initiate refund process before boarding. Just find a cheap flight. Done this countless times to get through security to escort a young traveler to their flight. How would the TSA know.
Did I just miss a re-release of Catch Me if You Can, with a new Frank Abagnale?
I’m sure terrorists are eagerly taking notes. Like seriously why even have TSA if they are this incompetent.
She cleared security so that isn’t the issue. Security don’t usually check ID, they check the contents of your cabin baggage in addition to your body.
What are you talking about? TSA checks an ID/facial recognition every single time you go through security. You could not be more wrong.
@JP you could absolutely get past the ID checks at TSA but still go through the bag & body scanners.
They don't check IDs as much in many other countries. But in the US, TSA does (although with biometrics these days, some TSA Pre folks don't even need to do that).
Would love to see a full cctv journey published just like they did to Ben at Cairo airport!
in other SkyTeam TATL news, Air Europa confirms that AF/KL is talking about a 20% investment after IAG was blocked from investing in Air Europa.
Air Europa has long been a part of SkyTeam but in the "outer circle."
They have the potential to be a much larger player to the alliance than ITA in part because of the geography of Spain vs. Italy. DL already is one of if not the largest carriers between Italy and the US while AF/DL/KL has alot of room to grow in Spain
How is ITA and Italy related to Air Europa? Oh right, it's not.
It seems you're having private conversations in your head and making false equivalency connections, but they're totally unrelated. And nobody else but you are making them but you. Doesn't that seem strange to you?
I specifically said "other SkyTeam TATL news"
Ben picked up and wrote on the story.
Ben and I disagree about some things but I am happy to see him produce as much content as possible.
That makes no sense.
Try staying on topic Tommy
Again, having your own conversation in your head.
@Tim Dunn, why don’t you start your own blog? I’m not being sarcastic, it’s an honest question.
you can't stand that Ben actually picked up the story....
No one here appears to be upset.
clearly a failure in the boarding process that should make absolutely sure that every person on the flight should not only be on the flight but that the seat assignments - or lack thereof - are fully reconciled.
There is undoubtedly security footage of the gate area that will allow DL to figure out how this person got onboard but many airport gates have space between where the passenger scans their boarding pass or facial...
clearly a failure in the boarding process that should make absolutely sure that every person on the flight should not only be on the flight but that the seat assignments - or lack thereof - are fully reconciled.
There is undoubtedly security footage of the gate area that will allow DL to figure out how this person got onboard but many airport gates have space between where the passenger scans their boarding pass or facial recognition matches the passenger to the manifest. I suspect part of the solution is for those open spaces to be closed.
Well, the motivation seems pretty clear - fare evasion.
the cost to the passenger will undoubtedly be much higher than the fare they evaded.
Delta probably will be required by the French government to bring her back home and she will be blacklisted from US airports at the minimum even if she pays a fare.
Is there no penalty for stowaways?? If so, does it apply to Delta as well??
If there was a penalty in the number of stock options granted to the executive in the C-Suite responsible for stowaways, the whole situation would end immediately. Just don't mess with my stock options.
Interesting six hours after she was discovered, security was able to track her every move through the airport! Too bad hindsight isn't that useful.
Here to watch @DimSum twist and contort herself to make something "premium" out of this lavatory episode.
What was the motivation. Not rocket science. She wanted to get to Paris.
My comment is quite simple and straight forward.
Sheer incompetence on the part of delta from where you ever want to start. LOUSY MANAGEMENT. KUDOS TO THE PERSON WHO SUCCEEDED TO BRING THESE FLAWS OUT. YES TOTALLY WRONG ON HIS/HERS PART
Just incredible to be 7 hours in a Lavatory.
DELTA is the most premium airline for third-world stowaways.
The multiple layers of security theater work fine when everyone cooperates, but are exposed when a single woman decides not to play along.
Really goes to show you how much the TSA plays into security theater.
Some random person without a ticket can just get into any flight.
Imagine if this was an actual bad actor. And Delta and the TSA simply just allowed this to happen.
I can’t seem the find the article, but didn’t you write about a stowaway either standby or non-rev passenger on DL earlier in the year? If i remember right someone had snapped a photo of someone else’s BP, but they were caught either before the aircraft left the gate or before takeoff. I think there was a similar scuffle on an ATL-LAX flight earlier this year too.
It does make you wonder, now that TSA...
I can’t seem the find the article, but didn’t you write about a stowaway either standby or non-rev passenger on DL earlier in the year? If i remember right someone had snapped a photo of someone else’s BP, but they were caught either before the aircraft left the gate or before takeoff. I think there was a similar scuffle on an ATL-LAX flight earlier this year too.
It does make you wonder, now that TSA isn’t looking at BPs anymore (mostly, anyway) where the pitfalls in this system lie.
Happy Thanksgiving!
Aha, here’s an article about the ATL-LAX incident:
https://www.fox5atlanta.com/news/fbi-probes-security-breach-on-los-angeles-bound-delta-flight
In Nevada, a debt to a casino is a criminal offense but not a debt to a small business. Likewise, airlines should not have special privilege though violation of immigration regulations is a valid angle.
The lack of an empty economy class seat did her in.
Ben, noticed you linked into a bsky post -- will you start posting on bsky regularly? Afaik the one mile at a time account on bluesky has no posts