Another Delta stowaway: passenger arrested after sneaking onto Christmas Eve flight without a ticket, officials say

• An unticketed passenger was caught on board a Delta Air Lines plane, officials from the airline said.
• The incident reportedly occurred on Christmas Eve at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport.
• It comes weeks after another person tried to fly from New York to Paris without a boarding pass.

A Delta Air Lines passenger was caught trying to fly to Hawaii without a boarding pass on Christmas Eve, several media outlets reported.

An unticketed passenger was discovered as Delta flight 487 was taxiing to the runway at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, Delta said in a statement to CBS News.

The Port of Seattle told CNN the plane then returned to the terminal, where the suspect departed. Police located them in an airport restroom using video surveillance, it added.

The passenger went through the usual security screenings but bypassed ID verification and boarding status stations, the Transportation Security Administration told CBS News.

The Port of Seattle Police told the outlet that investigators determined the unticketed passenger had passed through a security checkpoint the day before.

They were arrested for criminal trespass, the Port of Seattle said, per CBS News.

The Airbus A321neo departed more than two hours later than scheduled, according to data from Flightradar24. CBS reported that the TSA carried out additional security checks and rescreened customers while the aircraft was swept by K9 dogs.

"As there are no matters more important than safety and security, Delta people followed procedures to have an unticketed passenger removed from the flight and then apprehended," Delta said in a statement shared with multiple outlets. "We apologize to our customers for the delay in their travels and thank them for their patience and cooperation."

Delta, TSA, and the Port of Seattle did not immediately respond to requests for comment from Business Insider, which were sent outside regular working hours.

After a similar incident last month, 57-year-old Svetlana Dali was charged with being a stowaway on an aircraft after sneaking onto a Delta Air Lines service to Paris. If found guilty, she faces up to five years in prison.

The complaint against Dali, which BI has seen, says she boarded a Delta flight from New York to Paris without a boarding pass or a passport.

It added that she was able to pass through security by entering a special lane for airline staff. Dali is also said to have admitted in an interview with authorities that she intentionally evaded TSA and Delta staff to board the flight.

The incident is said to have occurred in late November, during another busy holiday period when Thanksgiving travel set records.

The TSA said it expected to screen nearly 40 million people at airports from December 19 to January 2, up 6.2% from 2023.

It said the busiest days would be December 20, 27, and 30.