An unticketed passenger aboard Delta flight 487 from Seattle to Honolulu caused a two-hour delay on December 24, according to Port of Seattle Police and Delta Airlines.
The incident occurred around 1:05 p.m. when the passenger was discovered on the Airbus A321neo aircraft as it began taxiing.
“Nobody knew really what was going on. So we were kind of left in the dark,” said passenger Brady Bly.
Bly told KIRO 7 he was on Delta flight 487 on Christmas Eve. He says the plane was about to take off when the plane returned to the gate.
“Getting ready to taxi and they told us… we’d have to go back for a security breach,” Bly explained.
Bly said passengers had to de-plane and get rescreened through TSA, which delayed the flight more than two hours.
It wasn’t until they reboarded that Bly said the captain announced there was an “unauthorized passenger” on board.
“It’s kind of scary if somebody could just sneak on the plane like that through two security checks,” he said.
The plane returned to the terminal, and the individual left the plane.
Port of Seattle Police later located the suspect in a restroom using video surveillance.
The person was arrested for criminal trespass and booked into the SCORE facility.
As a precaution, the aircraft and all terminal areas accessed by the individual were swept by K9 units.
TSA also directed all passengers to deplane and return to the security checkpoint for screening.
The flight eventually departed at 3 p.m., approximately two hours and 15 minutes after its original departure time.
Further investigation revealed the suspect had passed through a TSA security checkpoint on the evening of December 23 without a boarding pass, though they were properly screened.
The individual later gained access to the gate and boarding bridge without presenting a ticket.
" I don’t think Delta did everything they could to protect people on the flight,” Bly added. “Getting by two security breaches. I can understand one, maybe, but the second, that’s almost impossible.”
He wishes the airline communicated what was going on instead of having to guess for the next few hours on the flight.
“Just leaves you to wonder the worst, you know, you don’t know what’s going on and you’re stuck on the plane and you know, what if there was explosives or something,” Bly said.
Delta Airlines confirmed the event, stating, “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. We apologize to our customers for the delay in their travels and thank them for their patience and cooperation.”
TSA released a statement, saying: “TSA can confirm an individual did go through standard screening and did not possess any prohibited items. The individual bypassed the identity verification and boarding status stations and boarded an aircraft at Seattle/Tacoma International (SEA) without a boarding pass. TSA takes any incidents that occur at any of our checkpoints nationwide seriously. TSA will independently review the circumstances of this incident at our travel document checker station at Seattle/Tacoma International.”
Port of Seattle Police are working with TSA and Delta Airlines to investigate how the individual bypassed security measures.
Passengers onboard were reported safe, and the flight continued without further issues.
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