The winter holiday season is a stressful time to be inside an airport for millions of people. One woman at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport decided to make it less stressful by flying without all the trouble of actually buying a ticket.
Our unnamed frequent flyer successfully made it around TSA checkpoints and boarded Delta Air Lines flights twice in December. However, the 33-year-old was discovered both times and arrested twice over a span of just three days.
The first incident happened on December 24. The trespasser cut to the front of the security line, snuck past the officers checking IDs and boarding passes, then went through the metal detectors like a normal passenger. She then walked behind a boarding desk to get on the jetway and board Delta Flight 487 to Honolulu. The woman wasn’t discovered until the plane was taxiing. She was then arrested again at the airport two days later. KING-TV looked into the excuses she gave police when she was apprehended:
According to court documents, an officer recognized the woman from surveillance footage. The woman told police she was picking up her sister from the airport, but she did not have a ticket and could not list a real airline for the flight her sister was on.
The officer showed her surveillance footage from the Christmas Eve incident and she responded, “Yes that is me, but I was already arrested for that,” court documents revealed Tuesday.
Police arrested the woman for first-degree criminal trespassing, her second instance in less than three days. The maximum penalty for criminal trespassing is 364 days or $5,000 in fines or both.
People boarding airline flights without identification or a ticket happen more often than you would think. Last year, a man at Munich Airport in Germany accomplished the feat even faster. He got onto two flights in two days. The man successfully flew to Stockholm, Sweden and was only caught when he tried to fly back to Munich.
