When it comes to the airports and flying, we’ve heard about people stealing bags, phones, food and more, but stealing a flight?
That’s the case according to a criminal complaint filed in the United States District Court for the District of Utah. In the story by USA Today, a passenger named Wicliff Yves Fleurizard of George, Texas tried to illegally fly on Delta Air Lines flight 1683, from Salt Lake City, Utah to Austin Texas on March 16, 2024.
According to the report, surveillance footage showed Fleurizard taking pictures of people’s mobile boarding passes. He then presented one of the photographed boarding passes and was allowed on. As it was a domestic flight, there weren’t any ID checks at the gate, making it easy for someone to get on the aircraft with someone else’s boarding pass.
Had Fleurizard’s plan worked? While he managed to successfully sneak on board, there was already trouble brewing at the gate. Now that the real passenger presented themselves during boarding, the young girl who the pass belonged to was unable to scan it, and had to be manually checked before being allowed on the aircraft.
Meanwhile, Fleurizard tried to spend as much time hiding in the front lavatory, before making his way to the one in the back to kill even more time in the hopes that no one would notice.
Everything was all square until the aircraft started taxiing. He was eventually forced to return to his “seat”, and that’s where his master plan started to coming tumbling down. As all the seats were occupied on that flight, the flight attendant asked him where he was supposed to be seated. In response, he said he was in 21F, but when they realized the seat was occupied, they verified his credentials and realized that the boarding pass he used did not match his name, and that he was not listed as being on that flight.
Credit: Bradley Wint/Gate Checked | All Rights ReservedAs a result, the aircraft returned to the gate and he was escorted off by security personnel.
When questioned, he said that he was trying to get home to Texas to meet up with a family member who had flown in from Florida. He initially tried to fly standby with Southwest Airlines on a buddy pass, but as that flight was full, he resorted to sneaking on board the Delta flight instead.
He was later arrested on one felony count of stowing away on a vessel or aircraft. This felony could result in him being fined and/or facing up to five years in prison.
The complaint noted that “Fleurizard admitted he made a mistake and was only trying to get home.”
The flight departed late, and arrived in Austin almost 30 minutes later than scheduled.
[Featured Photo: Aero Icarus/Flickr | CC BY-SA 2.0 DE]
