Authorities Probing How Someone Managed to Sneak Onto Delta Flight to Paris

Delta Air Lines and federal authorities are investigating after a stowaway passenger boarded a flight in New York City before reportedly being taken into custody upon arrival in Paris, France.

An unticketed passenger is believed to have evaded multiple checkpoints at New York’s JFK airport on Tuesday before somehow sneaking onto Delta Flight 264, which was headed to Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport. The incident was first reported by CNN on Thursday morning.

The stowaway, a woman aged between 55 and 60 who is both a U.S. green card and a Russian passport holder, successfully passed through a physical security screening checkpoint by the U.S. Transportation Security Administration (TSA) on her way to the departure gate.

However, a TSA spokesperson said in a statement emailed to Newsweek on Thursday that the woman then “bypassed two identity verification and boarding status stations without proper documentation and boarded” the Delta flight.

“Before boarding, the individual was physically screened by TSA, did not travel with any prohibited items and was not a threat to civil aviation,” the spokesperson said. “TSA will independently review the circumstances of this incident at our travel document checker station at JFK International Airport.”

It is unclear how the woman boarded the flight without a ticket. A Delta spokesperson stressed the importance of “matters of safety and security” while saying in a statement emailed to Newsweek that the airline was investigating the matter.

“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,” they said.

Rob Jackson, a passenger on the flight, told CNN that the stowaway was hiding “in a lavatory all the way at the rear of the aircraft when we departed JFK” with the flight completely full. The aircraft, a Boeing 767-400ER, normally holds up to 246 passengers in Delta seating configurations.

“I overheard the flight attendants talking about it with the pilots – they said this person was in one lavatory and then would exit and walk to a different lavatory and go in there for a long time,” Jackson said.

In a video recorded by Jackson, the captain of the flight can apparently be heard instructing passengers to remain on board in Paris just before law enforcement officers arrived to confront the stowaway.

“Folks, this is the captain, we are just waiting for the police to come on board,” the captain says, according to CNN. “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.”

The woman is reportedly being held in an area of Charles de Gaulle airport that is reserved for people awaiting deportation and is expected to be sent back to the U.S. soon.