Stowaway woman found hiding on Delta flight from NYC to Paris
NEW YORK - A stowaway was found and arrested onboard a Paris-bound Delta flight from New York City Tuesday night, according to authorities.
Officials say the woman is a Russian national who did not have a ticket when she boarded the plane at John F. Kennedy International Airport.
Police boarded the plane at the Paris airport as seen in a video from a passenger that was shared on social media. "This is the captain. We’re just waiting for the police to come on board," the pilot can be heard saying.
Delta Flight 264 took off Tuesday night from Kennedy and landed at Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris the next day with the woman who had somehow bypassed security, authorities said.
The woman was refused entry to France for not having a valid travel document (visa), and was placed in a waiting area for the time needed to return her to the United States as she held a valid US residence permit, the French National Police said in a statement.
Test at Toulouse Blagnac airport of the Airbus A350-941 neo before being delivered to Delta Airlines, in Toulouse on 08th December 2022. -- (Photo by Urbanandsport/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
The woman was screened and was not carrying any prohibited items, according to a spokesperson from TSA.
She was placed in a waiting area for the time needed to return her to the United States as she held a valid US residence permit, the French National Police said in a statement.
"TSA takes any incidents that occur at any of our checkpoints nationwide seriously," the spokesperson said. "TSA will independently review the circumstances of this incident at our travel document checker station at JFK."
A Delta spokesperson said in a statement, "Nothing is of greater importance than matters of safety and security. 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."
A spokesperson for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which operates Kennedy Airport, declined to comment.
It's still unclear why the woman was on the flight or where she was trying to go.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.