A Texas man was able to board a Delta Air Lines flight without a ticket after he secretly photographed a girl’s boarding pass, according to a criminal complaint, and was only caught as the plane was heading to the runway.
Wicliff Yves Fleurizard, 26, of George, Texas, had allegedly taken pictures of multiple passengers’ phones and boarding passes when they weren’t looking as he tried to get on the flight from Salt Lake City to Austin on Sunday. The complaint filed in the U.S. District Court of Utah alleges that he then used his own phone as a boarding pass at the gate and successfully boarded the plane.
When a Delta gate agent scanned the boarding pass of a minor female traveling alone, “the system showed that she was already onboard,” the complaint reads.
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Once on the aircraft, Fleurizard was allegedly seen trying to open an emergency equipment storage door, at which point a flight attendant pointed him to the bathroom at the front of the plane. He proceeded to spend “a significant amount of time in the lavatory while others were boarding,” the complaint says.
After boarding was complete and the plane’s doors secured, Fleurizard allegedly exited the front bathroom and headed straight for the bathroom at the back of the aircraft. When he emerged for the second time, with the plane taxiing to the runway, a “flight attendant noticed that there were no seats available on the plane,” the complaint says.
Fleurizard allegedly told the attendant which seat he was supposed to be in, but the flight crew confirmed that the passenger already sitting in the seat was the person who was ticketed for the seat. The attendants were also unable to find any “valid ticket or booking reservation” in Fleurizard’s name on any Delta flight using their guest service tool, the complaint says.
The plane was forced to return to the gate, where law enforcement spoke with Fleurizard. He allegedly explained that he’d been in Utah on a snowboarding trip and was trying to get home to see his family who’d flown in from Florida, according to the complaint. He said a friend had given him a Southwest Airlines “buddy pass” ticket which he’d tried to use on two earlier flights, but neither had any available seats. Southwest had booked him on a flight for 3 p.m. on Sunday, according to the filing.
Instead, he left the Southwest boarding area and allegedly tried to illegally board the Delta flight. FlightAware data shows the Delta flight was scheduled to depart hours earlier, at 9:50 a.m. on Sunday. Fleurizard “admitted he had made a mistake and was only trying get home,” the complaint says.
Fleurizard has been charged with one felony count of being a stowaway on an aircraft.
