Woman accused of sneaking on flight without ticket arrested again at Sea-Tac Airport
Jan 3, 2025, 3:45 PM | Updated: 4:11 pm
Delta planes are seen parked at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport on June 19, 2024. In Toronto, a Delta plane flipped upside down. (Photo: Kent Nishimura, Getty Images)
(Photo: Kent Nishimura, Getty Images)
A woman was arrested for the second time in a week at the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (Sea-Tac Airport), days after she was accused of sneaking past security and boarding a Delta Air Lines flight headed to Honolulu without a ticket.
The Port of Seattle Police told KIRO 7 the second arrest happened on Dec. 27 when someone called to report a suspicious woman near Checkpoint 2.
Officers said they recognized the woman because they arrested her on Christmas Eve.
When asked why she was back at the airport, she reportedly told police she was picking her sister up but “did not have a ticket and could not list a real airline for the flight her sister was on,” according to documents KIRO 7 obtained.
Officers tried to call a phone number the woman provided for her sister, but it wasn’t a working number.
According to the documents, officers then showed the woman the security footage they had of her sneaking past the portion of security where TSA asks for a boarding pass and identification. She reportedly confirmed it was her, but that she was “already arrested for that.”
Because the woman once again did not have a ticket while inside the airport, she did not list a real airline or have any proof she was picking up her sister, officers said they arrested her.
The second arrest occurred three days after the first, where it was confirmed the woman was caught in another passenger’s seat on a full flight headed to Honolulu.
That woman was caught on Delta flight 487 while the aircraft was taxiing on Christmas Eve, according to a Delta spokesperson in an email to MyNorthwest. After the person was discovered, the plane returned to the terminal and the individual left the aircraft, Perry Cooper with the Port of Seattle relayed to MyNorthwest by email.
Cooper said with the help of video surveillance, the Port of Seattle Police Department found the woman in a terminal restroom, arrested her for criminal trespassing and booked her into the South Correctional Entity in Des Moines.
The plane was then swept by K9s, Cooper reported, along with the areas in the terminal accessed by the stowaway. The aircraft was subsequently deplaned and all passengers were escorted by TSA to return to the security checkpoint for rescreening.
Further investigation revealed the woman who didn’t have a ticket managed to get through a TSA security checkpoint at Sea-Tac Airport on Monday, Dec. 23 without a boarding pass but was properly screened, Cooper explained. He said the woman was then able to get through to the loading bridge without a scanned ticket at the gate.
“The Port of Seattle Police will continue to work with the airlines and TSA regarding the situation,” Cooper stated.
A Delta spokesperson told MyNorthwest the flight was delayed for 2 hours and 15 minutes before continuing to Honolulu at 3 p.m.
Contributing: Lexi Herda, KIRO 7; Julia Dallas and Steve Coogan, MyNorthwest
