Not long ago, several media outlets wrote about a woman who had appeared to somehow sneak onto a Delta flight with no I.D. and no plane ticket.
We found out what happened next.
Briefly, a woman named Sylvia Rictor boarded a plane on October 5 and took a seat. As per Spectrum News 13, “Rictor allegedly fooled a Transportation Security Administration agent by pretending to be a part of another family, multiple people with knowledge of the investigation told Spectrum News. Rictor also used a similar ploy at the Delta counter, sources say.”
Meanwhile, passenger Jenni Clemmons boarded the plane after Rictor had, and discovered Rictor sitting in her seat. Rictor refused to move and, when confronted by Delta flight attendants, said she had thrown out her boarding pass upon boarding and didn’t know where it was. She also had no adequate I.D. to show, only a photo on her phone.
Without a boarding pass or I.D. Rictor was escorted off the plane by Delta Air Lines representatives, where she was handed off to the Orlando Police Department. As per a statement from the OPD: “Officers asked the passenger for identification and for her boarding pass in which she stated she threw her ticket away and did not have Identification. Since the passenger could not produce identification or a boarding pass, the officers escorted the passenger to the shuttle to exit airport property.”
Meanwhile, all the other passengers on the flight had to leave the plane and be re-screened, which caused a 3-hour delay in the Orlando to Atlanta flight.
A few days later, the FBI made the following statement to the Orlando Sentinel:
“After considering the evidence and other factors, including the availability of civil and administrative remedies, we will not be pursuing criminal charges at this time.”
Well, OK then. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Before her name was learned, several people had questioned if the mystery woman was Marilyn Hartman, the so-called “serial stowaway” who has been arrested on numerous occasions for sneaking onto planes with no boarding pass or identification. She wasn’t. But it makes you wonder if Rictor was trying to copy Hartman’s multiple feats, or if she came up with the idea of her own. With no criminal charges filed against Rictor, I guess we’ll never know. Well, unless she tries it again.
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This post first appeared on Your Mileage May Vary
4 comments
No charges? Not even trespassing? I hope DL sue her for costs.
Why did they re-screen the other passengers? She had made it through security and been screened like everyone else. If there was a concern about her having gone through screening, they really needed to sweep the entire airport and re-screen everyone. Kind of confuses me as to their thinking.
Safety culture.
I wonder why she would be so belligerent and not move from her seat? Almost seems like she wanted to get caught. Not that i’d do this, but if I were trying to pull this off, I would maybe sit in a seat near the restroom upon getting on the plane, and then try to get into the restroom when no one is looking, not locking the door and hoping no one enters. Then once in the air, come out and look for open seat. Maybe naiive but seems like a better chance of pulling it off than her strategy.