At the largest terminal at New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport on one of the busiest travel days of the year, security lapses enabled an unticketed passenger to board a plane to Paris in a shocking breach that one aviation expert said should serve as a “wake-up call” for the airline industry.
“It’s a really big deal and it leaves our vulnerabilities exposed to the world,” said Mary Schiavo, a CNN aviation analyst and former inspector general for the US Department of Transportation.
“Not much went right,” she said of the episode involving a woman a Paris airport official identified as a 57-year-old Russian national. French authorities identified the woman as Svetlana Dali, who was returned to New York on a Delta flight on Wednesday. At least a dozen law enforcement officers from various agencies waited for her at the gate.
The stowaway didn’t have a boarding pass but completed a security screening and bypassed identity verification and boarding status stations to board a Delta Air Lines aircraft the Tuesday before Thanksgiving, according to the Transportation Security Administration.
The woman did go through carry-on baggage screening where the TSA said its officers found two bottles of water. She was eventually arrested when the plane touched down in France.
“Maybe this is one incredibly lucky thing that happened because the system is blinking red,” Schiavo said in an interview. “Everyone knows the threats are out there and the TSA just failed horribly, as did Delta Air Lines. So if people approach this properly, this could be the wake-up call that we need to keep flyers and the people over whose heads we fly safe.”
Stowaway blended in with groups
A TSA spokesperson told CNN the woman first bypassed an airport terminal employee in charge of the security lane reserved for airline flight crews at JFK’s Terminal 4 main checkpoint.
It was at that point the woman skipped the station where her ID and boarding pass would have been checked, the spokesperson said. She then joined the line for standard TSA screening.
It remains unclear how the woman was able to get past Delta gate agents at JFK. Delta has not said how the woman was able to board the plane once she made it past the TSA checkpoint.
Delta Air Lines said Wednesday night that it was “thoroughly addressing” what it described as a “deviation from standard procedures” that enabled the woman to board the plane without a boarding pass. The airline did not provide specifics but said in a statement it reviewed its own security and its infrastructure is “sound.”
Investigators believe a contributing factor may have been the massive holiday weekend crowds at the airport. According to TSA data, nearly 2.7 million people were screened on that Tuesday before Thanksgiving.
A review of JFK’s security camera video shows the woman first blended in with a flight crew before the security screening, and later proceeded to the gate where she then placed herself in the middle of what appeared to be a family traveling together, according to a senior law enforcement official briefed on the investigation.
She blended in with the group of travelers as they presented multiple tickets and passports at once, according to the official.
“This is no excuse,” Schiavo said. “They are supposed to treat each person as a separate security threat. The TSA mantra is ‘every passenger, every time’ — they are not supposed to treat groups any differently than solo — each person must be identified and have a ticket.”
Schiavo – who has represented passengers and crew of numerous US aviation incidents, including cases filed on behalf of 9/11 victims’ family members – told CNN that all airport checkpoints are covered by video cameras and the stowaway “is obviously on that video skirting the TSA identification and ticketing check.”
“They already know how she did it and they need to fess up and close that loophole,” Schiavo said.
Passengers learned about the stowaway on Delta Flight 264 from JFK to Charles de Gaulle Airport when the plane landed. The pilot instructed travelers to remain seated because French police were boarding to deal with “a serious security issue,” Rob Jackson, who was on the flight, told CNN.
E-gates seen as solution
TSA is conducting its own investigation of the incident, a federal official familiar with the probe told CNN.
The incident shows electronic gate technology – known as e-gates, which could integrate with the agency’s facial recognition systems at checkpoints – could prevent incidents like this, though it would require more federal investment, TSA said.
TSA Administrator David P. Pekoske, speaking at the American Association of Airport Executives Aviation Security Summit on Tuesday, said the agency occasionally has “a very, very small number” of people who skip the identity verification stage undetected. He suggested electronic gates might be a solution to making sure all passengers are screened.
“It’s something we take very seriously,” he said of the people who bypass the identification verification station. “When I see something systemically occurring within the system, my first question is, ‘Hey, what can we do?’ And one of those solutions would be installing e-gates.”
Pekoske added, “We don’t use e-gates in our system, and that’s a problem.”
Schiavo said bypassing the first identity verification station with its facial recognition technology was among the glaring mistakes committed that day.
“She came in and she didn’t have any facial recognition, and obviously they didn’t check to see she was ticketed passenger because she wasn’t,” Schiavo said.
She slips by undetected at Delta gate
Delta said it “is conducting an exhaustive investigation of what may have occurred” during boarding, but has declined further comment.
“At the gate, because it’s an international flight, they should have checked, A. her ticket, and B. her passport. So that’s another check,” Schiavo said. “Of course, that didn’t happen. And then she didn’t have an assigned seat. You know, everybody’s supposed to be seated and buckled in, right? That’s a federal aviation regulation.”
A source familiar with the incident said the stowaway was able to evade detection by the flight crew on the plane because the flight was not full, though passengers told CNN the woman was able to hide by moving between bathrooms.
“The flight attendants are required to check the bathrooms. Some airlines lock the bathrooms but Delta doesn’t require them to be locked on takeoff,” Schiavo said. “The airlines that require that it’s obviously to stop this bathroom dodgeball.”
The woman left France on a flight back to JFK on Wednesday. She was escorted onto the Delta Air Lines-operated plane by two French security officials. The flight touched down in New York shortly after 5 p.m. ET. Representatives from TSA and law enforcement both planned to question Dali about how she evaded airport security. She is expected to face a federal charge for being a stowaway on a vessel or aircraft without consent, according to multiple law enforcement officials. She could face up to five years in prison.
Separately, TSA said Wednesday that it has opened a civil case against Dali. The agency cannot bring criminal charges, only civil penalties. CNN has not seen the civil filing.
On Tuesday the stowaway was onboard a flight back to New York but Delta refused to fly her when she became disruptive, according to law enforcement sources. She had been scheduled to be on a flight to the US on Saturday but French authorities removed her from the aircraft after she started screaming.
Second Delta stowaway this year
In March, a man from Texas was arrested on a charge of stowing away on a vessel or aircraft after boarding a Delta flight in Salt Lake City without a ticket by using a photo he took of another passenger’s boarding pass while they were not looking, according to court documents.
Once on the plane, the man went to the lavatory at the front of the aircraft and spent “a significant amount of time” there while other passengers boarded, the complaint said. After boarding was completed and just before the aircraft doors were secured, the man made his way to the back of the aircraft and entered the lavatory there, according to the complaint.
When the man left the bathroom, a flight attendant noticed there were no available seats and approached him, according to the complaint. Once flight attendants obtained the man’s name and determined he didn’t have a ticket, the plane returned to the gate and he was met by law enforcement.
Schiavo said the latest stowaway incident demonstrates the vulnerabilities of security in the airline industry.
“What’s really important here is, now the world knows our security is once again – just like before 911 – extremely porous,” she said. “Had she been a terrorist, A. it would have been successful, and B. no one would have known who she was.”
CNN’s John Miller, Ross Levitt, Mark Morales, Brynn Gingras, Rebekah Riess, Amanda Musa, Polo Sandoval, Holmes Lybrand, Amanda Jackson, Lex Harvey, Saskya Vandoorne, Catherine Nicholls, Taylor Romine and Alanne Orjoux contributed to this report.
