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A woman without a plane ticket got through security and made it onto a Delta Air Lines flight from New York City to Paris on Tuesday evening.
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The woman bypassed security checkpoints and boarded the plane at JFK International Airport just ahead of American Thanksgiving, which begins on Thursday. The airline confirmed an incident occurred on a Nov. 26 flight on a Boeing 767-400ER aircraft in an email to the National Post.
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According to a spokesperson from the U.S. Transportation Security Administration (TSA), the woman was able to complete security screening and get through two identity verification and boarding status stations, CNN reported.
She was eventually discovered in a bathroom by a flight attendant before landing at Charles de Gaulle Airport, per the New York Post. The woman had been walking up and down the aisles and going in and out of the four available lavatories on board throughout the flight, the Daily Mail reported, which was just under seven and a half hours long.
One passenger posted about the stowaway on his Instagram account.
“Sooo…we landed in Paris and the crew told us we had to remain seated while the French border police came onto the plane. We somehow flew all the way from New York to Paris with a stowaway,” wrote Rob Jackson, a real estate broker from New York, in a story saved to his social media page. “This woman somehow got on the plane and hid in a lavatory during takeoff and wasn’t detected until we were about to land.”
An announcement was made to passengers alerting them to an issue on board when they landed, Jackson told CNN. He also said he did not see the stowaway and the flight appeared to be full when he got onto the plane.
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“They instructed us all to remain seated because French police were going to board the aircraft to deal with ‘a serious security issue,’” he said.
Meanwhile, a source told NBC News that the woman was removed from the plane after it landed in France. She did not pose a threat and did not have any items that were prohibited, TSA told NBC News.
Delta Air Lines said in a statement sent over email to the National Post that they are “conducting an exhaustive investigation.”
“Nothing is of greater importance than matters of safety and security,” the airline said, adding that they will “work collaboratively with other aviation stakeholders and law enforcement.”
The woman’s identity has not been disclosed. TSA did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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