Another Delta Airlines stowaway is caught on flight from Seattle

Joseph Wilkinson, New York Daily News on Dec 27, 2024

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A person was captured attempting to sneak onto a Delta Airlines flight from Seattle to Honolulu on Christmas Eve, authorities said this week.

The unidentified stowaway made it on board Delta Flight 487 on Tuesday, but the crew was alerted to the person's presence before takeoff, ABC News reported.

Delta personnel decided to deplane the entire aircraft back into the terminal at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport and rescan all passengers, according to the outlet. The failed stowaway walked away and hid in a bathroom, cops said.

Using video from the airport, police tracked and arrested the person, local ABC affiliate KOMO reported. The flight was delayed nearly two hours by the ordeal.

The suspect managed to clear security on Monday without a valid boarding pass but was properly screened at a checkpoint, the Transportation Security Administration told KOMO.

“TSA takes any incidents that occur at any of our checkpoints nationwide seriously,” the agency said in a statement. “TSA will independently review the circumstances of this incident at our travel document checker station at Seattle/Tacoma International.”

It’s the second time in a month someone has tried to stow away on a Delta flight. The first person succeeded, flying from New York’s John F. Kennedy Airport to Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris.

However, the stowaway, 57-year-old Svetlana Dali, couldn’t enter France because she couldn’t get through immigration. She was eventually shipped back to the U.S. and charged with federal crimes, then was captured a couple weeks later trying to sneak into Canada.

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