The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Stowaway on Delta flight ts caught before takeoff
He boarded using a photo of another passenger’s pass.
A man who schemed his way onto a Delta flight without a ticket was caught before the plane took off and arrested, police said.
The man, Wicliff Yves Fleurizard of George, Texas, boarded a Delta plane at Salt Lake City International Air- port on Sunday morning, using a photoon his phone of a young girl’s boardingpass, said a felony complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Utah. Fleurizard had taken pho- tos of passengers’ phones or boarding passes when they were not looking, the complaint said.
The complaint accuses Fleurizard of violating fed- eral law on stowaways on vessels or aircraft.
After Fleurizard, 26, was caught, he was arrested and booked into jail on a federal detainer, said Salt Lake City Police.
The gate agent for the flight said the girl whose boarding pass Fleurizard had taken a photo of “had an issue when the Delta gate agent attempted to scan her ticket,” showing she already was on board, the complaint said.
Atlanta-based Delta said it is “cooperating with law enforcement and relevant federal agencies” on the investigation.
Fleurizard told authorities he was in Park City, Utah, for a snowboarding trip and that he had a South- west “buddy pass” from a friend, the complaint said. The Transportation Secu- rity Administration said he was screened at the security checkpoint with a photo ID that matched his boarding pass. A buddy pass typically allows friends and family of airline employees to fly on standby.
Fleurizard told authori- ties there were no available seats on a flight he tried to get on Saturday afternoon, and he was rebooked for a Sunday morning flight that he could not get on because it was overbooked, the com- plaint said.
He was rescheduled again for a Southwest flight that afternoon, but instead got on the Delta flight. Fleuriz- ard “admitted he had made a mistake and was only try- ing to get home,” the com- plaint said.
After getting on the plane bound for Austin, Texas, Fleurizard went into the lavatory at the front of the plane and stayed in there during boarding, the com- plaint said. After boarding finished, he went to the back of the plane and entered the lavatory there. When he exited the lavatory, “a flight attendant noticed that there were no seats available on the plane,” the complaint said. The plane already was taxiing to the runway.
Fleurizard claimed to have seat 21F, the complaint said, but that seat already was taken by someone who had a ticket for the seat. Flight attendants could not find a valid reservation for Fleurizard “on Delta Flight #1683 or any other Delta Flight for that matter,” the complaint said.
The plane returned to the gate and police responded, at Delta’s request, then arrested Fleurizard.
There are safeguards to prevent passengers without a valid ticket from boarding a plane, including a scanner at the gate that indicates wi h a light and beeping when a boarding pass already has been scanned. Crew members also do a final count of passengers on board the plane.
But there have been instances when a discrepancy is missed, and passengers without a valid boarding pass have managed to get through.