No frequent-flyer miles for ‘serial stowaway’

CHICAGO — A woman notorious for stowing away on commercial airplanes made it past two TSA agents at O’Hare International Airport by hiding her face with her hair, and then stayed overnight at the airport before sneaking onto a plane and flying to London, prosecutors said Saturday.

Marilyn Hartman, 66, faces a felony theft charge in connection with flying to the United Kingdom on a British Airways jet without a $2,400 ticket and a misdemeanor trespass charge in connection with getting into the airport illegally. At a hearing Saturday afternoon, a judge ordered her released on her own recognizance, but ordered her to undergo psychological treatment and stay away from O’Hare and any British Airways planes.

Hartman used her hair to hide her face and walk past two federal Transportation Security Administration agents who were checking documents at O’Hare Jan. 14, prosecutors said. She then tried to board a plane to Connecticut, but was stopped by a flight agent.

The next day, Hartman managed to get past British Airways ticket agents and onto a plane, prosecutors said. She sat in an empty seat and flew to Heathrow Airport in London, but when she showed her documents to a customs agent, she was identified as someone who was not supposed to be there, prosecutors said.

Hartman has a long history of trying to sneak onto airplanes. She has been detained several times across the country for trying to bypass airport security. In a court filing after her arrest in July 2015 at O’Hare on trespass charges, Cook County prosecutors described Hartman as a “serial stowaway.”