In the last month, there have been multiple incidents in which stowaways bypassed airport security to sneak onto a plane.
While those like 57-year-old Svetlana Dali simply got arrested once discovered aboard a Delta (DAL) flight, other travelers ended up paying the ultimate price by getting close to fast-moving or non-pressurized parts of the plane to avoid being discovered.
🗞️ ✈️ Don’t miss the move: SIGN UP for TheStreet’s FREE daily newsletter 🗞️ ✈️
Last Christmas Day, United Airlines (UAL) workers conducting safety checks on a plane after it landed at Maui’s Kahului Airport discovered a human body in one of the compartments of the landing gear. The person likely snuck into the wheel well as a stowaway.
Stowaways are becoming an increasingly big problem, with life-threatening risks.
‘A heartbreaking situation’: JetBlue Airways
JetBlue Airways (JBLU) became the latest carrier to announce that its workers discovered two bodies in the landing gear of a plane that landed at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport.
Flight 1801 had flown into New York City’s John F. Kennedy International Airport on an Airbus A320-232 (EADSF) . It landed in Maui at 11:03 p.m. on Jan. 6.
The two bodies were discovered during the “routine post-flight maintenance inspection” that occurs after the plane lands; no other passengers were affected or operations disrupted.
“At this time, the identities of the individuals and the circumstances surrounding how they accessed the aircraft remain under investigation,” the airline said in a statement. “This is a heartbreaking situation, and we are committed to working closely with authorities to support their efforts to understand how this occurred.”
Related: People keep getting caught sneaking onto flights without a ticket
JetBlue also said that it is currently working with Broward County Sheriff’s Office and Broward County Medical Examiner’s Office to determine the official cause of death.
The frequency of similar incidents at the end of 2024 has caused some travelers and authorities to investigate how stowaways continue to bypass security protocols.
Another person was discovered aboard Delta’s Flight 487 on Dec. 24 as it prepared to take off for Honolulu from Seattle-Tacoma International Airport.
Why have there been so many stowaway incidents lately? Experts weigh in
Delta said the “unticketed passenger [was] removed from the flight and then apprehended” before the flight took off for its destination.
The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) also investigated and said the traveler had “managed to get through a TSA security checkpoint […] and gain access to a loading bridge” without a boarding pass.
More Travel:
Major discount airlines pay workers to ‘catch’ cheating customersDelta customers detail ‘disastrous’ CrowdStrike chaos in lawsuitDelta CEO reveals major consequence of recent flight cancelations
“There are multiple causes that come into this, and they probably involve not only a bit of lackadaisical inattention,” former commercial pilot and aviation John Nance told CNN in December 2024. “It may be training, it may be compliance, but it’s probably all of that.”
Juliette Kayyem, a former Department of Homeland Security official and national security analyst for CNN, also called the incident in which Svetlana Dali was able to breach a flight going from Philadelphia to Paris on Dec. 4 a “complete failure” of security that likely occurred because the traveler was not perceived as a threat when passing through TSA checkpoints.
“She falls outside of every high-risk profile by age, gender and ethnicity and therefore, that might explain why the systems did not pick her up,” Kayyem said.
Related: Veteran fund manager issues dire S&P 500 warning for 2025
