Stowaway Reportedly Caused Issue on 2nd Flight

UPDATE Dec 2, 2024 1:00 AM CST

The woman who managed to stow away on a Delta Air Lines flight from New York to Paris Tuesday was to return to the US on Saturday—but an aviation official confirmed to the New York Times that she caused an issue on that flight and had to deplane prior to takeoff. Flight 265 bound from Paris to JFK ended up departing two hours late due to an "unruly customer" who was removed from the plane by French authorities. The aviation source said the customer in question and the stowaway are the same person. A passenger on Saturday's flight tells CNN the woman "kept on saying 'I do not want to go back to the USA. Only a judge can make me go back to the USA.' She also repeated the Geneva convention a few times."

Nov 28, 2024 12:00 AM CST

A woman somehow managed to board a Delta Air Lines flight from New York to Paris without a boarding pass Tuesday, as Thanksgiving travel was ramping up. The stowaway was discovered mid-flight and removed by law enforcement after the plane landed as planned, sources tell NBC News. Flight 264 departed John F. Kennedy International Airport at 10:37pm Eastern time, headed for Charles de Gaulle Airport. Despite having no ticket, the woman did go through the TSA security screening process, and had no prohibited items on her, ABC News reports. But she then somehow skirted two "identity verification and boarding status stations and boarded the aircraft," TSA says in a statement.

That means she got around both the document check podium and a gate agent and managed to get on the plane. It's not clear how. "Nothing is of greater importance than matters of safety and security," Delta says in a statement. "That's why Delta is conducting an exhaustive investigation of what may have occurred and will work collaboratively with other aviation stakeholders and law enforcement to that end." The FBI has been made aware of the incident. In passenger video from the plane, the pilot can be heard announcing, "We are just waiting for the police to come on board … They directed us to keep everyone on the plane until they sort out the extra passenger." (More Delta Air Lines stories.)