A passenger traveling on a Delta flight from Orlando to Atlanta arrived at her seat to discover another woman was already sitting in it. She told the woman the seat was hers, but the woman refused to move. Upon getting the flight attendant involved, it turned into a series of events that caused a 3-hour delay.
Why? Because the woman who refused to move not only had no appropriate I.D., but she also had no travel documents that said she had a seat on that, or any other plane.
According to WFTV, when the passenger told the flight attendant on October 5 that the woman refused to exit her seat, the manifest was checked and the woman wasn’t listed. To make matters worse, even when the pilot and a supervisor were called, the woman still refused to move.
As per the passenger whose seat the woman was in, when questioned by the Delta staff, the woman said that once she had boarded the plane, she had thrown out her boarding pass. When asked for I.D., she showed a picture of herself on her phone.
With this, the police were called and they removed the woman from the plane. All seemed to be OK then, but as the plane was preparing to take off, they had more problems to contend with.
As per the passenger’s statement to WFTV:
“We were stopped pretty quickly and the pilot explained it was because the lady was not cooperating with TSA, and she did not have a ticket to any airline at all,” the passenger said. “They could not figure out how she even got on the plane.”
As per a tweet from Deanna Allbritton, a reporter from WFTV, all passengers were asked to leave the plane, and they and their bags were then searched.
BREAKING: @Delta confirms an unticketed passenger made it on a plane from @MCO to ATL. This is video of the deplaned passengers who had to be searched, along with their bags, when officials realized the breach. One passenger says it took 45 min to get the woman off the plane. pic.twitter.com/NVwxalJQTG
— Deanna Allbrittin (@deannaTVnews) October 5, 2019
Once everyone, and their stuff, AND the plane were all inspected, the passengers were allowed to reboard the plane and the plane took off, 3 hours later than originally scheduled.
So how did this woman get through the TSA checkpoint without adequate I.D. and onto a plane without a boarding pass?
Good question.
As per The Orlando Sentinel, a spokesperson for the TSA said the passenger went through security at the airport. (My question: If she didn’t have proper I.D., HOW DID THAT HAPPEN?)
Meanwhile, Delta released the following statement:
“Delta apologizes to customers of flight 1516 for the delay after a person not ticketed for that flight was removed from the aircraft. Security officials then directed precautionary rescreen of everyone onboard. Delta is working with local law enforcement and the Transportation Security Administration on their investigation and we are conducting our own review of this as well.”
And again, my question is, HOW DID SHE GET ON BOARD A PLANE WITHOUT A BOARDING PASS?
The T.S.A. and Delta appear to be equally as curious as I am about this – apparently they’ve called the F.B.I. to become involved.
So we’ll see what happens with that.
OCTOBER 17, 2019 UPDATE! Want to read about the rest of the story? Just click here.
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This post first appeared on Your Mileage May Vary
4 comments
Perhaps the woman boarded using a photoshopped e-boarding pass on her phone? If so, this may be a case of FAKE FLEWS.
This is the second incident w/in a month at Miami International. Let us not forget the ISIS supporting mechanic that crammed foam in the engine to disable the plane. Thank GOD the pilot caught the problem before takeoff. I’d say the security folks are possibly getting their pockets lined. Corruption w/in the TSA???
This incident occurred at Orlando Int’l Airport, not Miami.
Wonder if it the insane wacko Marilyn Hartman again? She should have been jailed or institutionalized for life a long time ago. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/22/us/stowaway-ohare-plane.html