2 weeks Ago
The 57-year-old Russian woman who stowed away on a Delta Air Lines flight from New York to Paris last week is set to return to the United States on Tuesday, a French airport official confirmed to CNN. The woman, who got past multiple security checkpoints at New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport and boarded a plane to Paris , will be traveling on a flight setting off from France at 2.
30 p.m. local time (8.
30 a.m. ET), the official said.
She was scheduled to be on a flight to the US on Saturday afternoon but French authorities removed her from the aircraft after she started screaming, according to the official. A man who was on the plane told CNN that the woman was sitting across the aisle from him and his family. “She kept on saying ‘I do not want to go back to the USA.
Only a judge can make me go back to the USA,’” Gary Treichler said. The woman will be accompanied by six US marshals on Tuesday’s flight back to New York, authorities said. Authorities in the US are continuing to investigate how the woman sneaked onto the initial Delta flight without a ticket.
Inspectors from the Transportation Security Administration are preparing a civil case against the stowaway after reviewing airport security video from inside John F. Kennedy International Airport, agency spokesperson Alexa Lopez told CNN. “The TSA will open civil cases against passengers when there’s evidence that procedures may have been violated,” Lopez said.
The TSA cannot bring criminal charges, though it can refer them to the Justice Department. Delta has not said how the woman was able to board the plane once she made it past the TSA checkpoint. The airline said it “is conducting an exhaustive investigation of what may have occurred,” but declined further comment.
CNN’s Pete Muntean, Alexandra Skores and Alanne Orjoux contributed to this report..
