a woman who Boarded a Delta Air Lines flight Earlier this week, passengers flying from New York City to Paris without boarding passes were removed from a return flight on Saturday after causing a disturbance before takeoff.
CBS News has confirmed that the stowaway, whose name has not been released, caused disruption on Delta Flight 265 from Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport to John F. Kennedy International Airport on Saturday.
He was turned away by French law enforcement, causing a delay of more than two hours before the flight's final departure. CBS News has learned that she will not return to the United States on Saturday and remains in French custody for the time being.
French officials escorted him to the plane but were not traveling with him. While boarding the plane, she started creating a nuisance and the police had to be called to remove her.
The situation first came to light on Tuesday, when the woman boarded Delta flight 265 from JFK Airport to Paris without a boarding pass. According to a source familiar with the incident, the flight was not sold out, and was discovered when a flight attendant became concerned that the woman was making frequent and lengthy visits to various lavatories on the Boeing 767-400ER.
After the plane landed, French police boarded it and took him into custody. The French Interior Ministry identified him only as a Russian citizen.
Passenger Rob Jackson, who shot video of French officials coming onto the plane after it landed in Paris, told CBS News that he saw the flight attendant acting strangely as the plane was landing.
“I heard them saying, like, we have a passenger who we think was hiding in the toilet during takeoff,” Jackson said. “He doesn't have a seat. He didn't have a boarding pass. And basically, he's a stowaway.”
A Transportation Security Administration source told CBS News that the woman somehow passed through an advanced imaging technology body scanner at a checkpoint at JFK Airport to avoid the document and ID check portion of the TSA process. Her bag was also scanned for prohibited items before she got to the gate and boarded the flight, the source said.
A TSA spokesperson confirmed in a statement that the woman was “physically screened without a boarding pass and without any prohibited items” and then “bypassed two identity verification and boarding status stations and boarded the plane.”
After passing through TSA security, it is unclear how the woman boarded the plane without showing a boarding pass or passport to Delta staff.
French law enforcement and the TSA are investigating separately. The woman may be liable to a civil penalty or fine for bypassing the document verification process.
