A month after a woman was caught stowing away on a Delta Air Lines flight bound for France, ABC News has confirmed that another unticketed passenger was caught on a flight bound for Hawaii, this time on Christmas Eve.
The recent stowaway was apprehended while boarding a flight from Seattle to Honolulu on December 24, according to the airline.
Delta Flight 487 was taxiing to depart when the crew discovered an un ticketed passenger on board. The identity of the individual has not been revealed.
“As there are no matters more important than safety and security, Delta people followed procedures to have an un ticketed passenger removed from the flight and then apprehended,” the airline told ABC News in a statement.
According to the airline, the flight was delayed by more than two hours due to TSA conducting additional security checks and rescreening all passengers.
Law enforcement officers responded to Seattle-Tacoma International Airport and detained the un ticketed passenger.
According to airport officials, the stowaway exited the plane after it returned to the gate, and Port of Seattle Police found them in a terminal restroom using video surveillance.
The passenger was arrested for trespassing and booked into the South Correctional Entity jail, according to Seattle Tacoma International Airport officials.
Airport authorities discovered that the stowaway had passed through a TSA security checkpoint the evening before the flight without a boarding pass, but had been properly screened otherwise.
In a statement to ABC News, the TSA also stated that the individual went through standard screening and “did not possess any prohibited items,” but that they bypassed the identity verification and boarding status stations and boarded without a boarding pass.
The agency stated that it takes “any incident that occurs at any of our checkpoints nationwide seriously.” TSA will conduct an independent review of the circumstances surrounding this incident at our travel document checker station at Seattle/Tacoma International.”
The TSA stated that it is working with the Port of Seattle Police on this incident.
Additionally, Delta stated that the investigation is ongoing, but preliminary findings indicate that the passenger boarded the plane without showing a boarding pass at the gate.
The discovery of the second Delta Air Lines stowaway comes after Russian national Svetlana Dali was caught stowing away on a Delta Air Lines flight from the United States to France in November.
Dali had snuck aboard Delta Flight 264, which took off from John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York and was bound for Charles-de-Gaulle International Airport in Paris.
According to a statement from the French Interior Ministry at the time, “She was not admitted to French territory due to a lack of a valid travel document (visa) and was placed in the waiting area for the time necessary for her rerouting to the United States since she held a valid US residence permit.”
Dali was arrested again just over a week later on December 4 for attempting to enter Canada by cutting off her ankle monitor, according to law enforcement sources.
The person she was staying with in Philadelphia discovered the cut bracelet and reported it to the authorities.
In Buffalo, New York, authorities apprehended Dali as he attempted to cross into Canada on a Greyhound bus.
