A Texas Man Reportedly Boarded a Delta Airlines Flight With a Fake Boarding Pass The 26-year-old used a photo of another passenger's pass and gained access to the aircraft.
By Emily Rella
Opinions expressed by BIZ Experiences contributors are their own.
A Texas man allegedly used a photo of another person's Delta Airlines boarding pass to get on a flight without a ticket of his own.
In court documents filed on Monday in the U.S. District Court in Utah, 26-year-old Wicliff Yves Fleurizard is facing one felony count of "stowing away on a vessel or aircraft" after security footage showed him taking photos of phones and boarding passes to board a flight to Austin, Texas from Salt Lake City, Utah on March 17.
Fleurizard, who took the photos without the passengers' knowledge, boarded the flight and immediately stowed away in the bathroom at the front of the aircraft.
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He then reportedly exited the bathroom at the front of the plane after boarding had completed and entered another bathroom at the back of the aircraft. However, a flight attendant noticed the plane was full with no empty seats just before takeoff.
When confronted during taxiing, Fleurizard told the flight attendant that his seat was 21F. But that boarding pass had already been verified with the passenger sitting in that seat, so the plane turned around and headed back to the gate, where the 26-year-old was met by law enforcement.
He reportedly told authorities that he was snowboarding in Utah and had been given a Companion Pass on a Southwest Airlines flight with his friend — a pass the airline offers qualifying travelers that allows a second traveler to go on the flight with them for free — but that he had tried to get on two separate flights and they both were full.
"Fleurizard admitted he had made a mistake and was only trying to get home," court documents state, noting that Fleurizard said he "needed to get home to see his family" in George, Texas, where he had family from Florida visiting.
Delta Airlines did not immediately respond to BIZ Experiences's request for comment, though a spokesperson, Morgan Durrant, told CNN that the airline is aware of the situation and cooperating with law enforcement.
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"Delta is cooperating with law enforcement and relevant federal agencies regarding an investigation into a non-ticketed individual being escorted off an aircraft in Salt Lake City prior to a scheduled departure," Durrant said. "We defer any additional questions to law enforcement."
According to FlightAware, Delta Flight 1863 arrived just 33 minutes late in Austin on Sunday.
