CHICAGO- A man attempted to fly from Houston to Los Angeles without a valid ticket by tailgating past a distracted United Airlines (UA) gate agent and boarding the aircraft with a possibly fake boarding pass.
The incident on United Airlines (UA) flight 469 from Houston (IAH) to Los Angeles (LAX) ended when the crew discovered the man had no seat on the full flight, forcing the aircraft to return to the gate, where federal authorities and an explosives detection team responded.
United Passenger Boards Flight Without a Valid Ticket
The man cleared TSA at Houston George Bush Intercontinental Airport (IAH) despite an initial problem with his boarding pass. Officers escorted him to a separate TSA kiosk and then allowed him through security.
He then moved through the terminal and spoke with United Airlines employees at gate C35. His first boarding attempt came at gate E16, where he tried to scan a boarding pass twice. Both scans failed. He argued with a United Airlines employee and was turned away.
About an hour later, the man arrived at gate D4. He paced near the gate and watched staff scan boarding passes for the Los Angeles (LAX) flight. When agents were busy with other passengers, he pretended to show a boarding pass and walked down the jetway onto the aircraft.
Discovery Onboard And Return To Gate
The man sat in an aisle seat after boarding. The woman seated next to him said he appeared unsure whether the seat belonged to him. He left for the lavatory and returned about 15 minutes later.
By then, the correct passenger occupied the seat he had taken. He moved to another lavatory as the plane started to taxi. A passenger alerted a flight attendant, and the crew told the man to return to his seat. Instead, he hid in another lavatory at the back of the aircraft.
When the crew confronted him, he gave the name “Mr. Lopez.” He asked to sit in a jump seat because the flight was full. The crew checked the manifest and found no passenger named Lopez. The aircraft then returned to the gate, View from the Wing reported.
Federal Response And Charges
Authorities met the aircraft at the gate. The response included the Houston Police Department, an explosives detection K9 unit, the FBI, the airport authority, and TSA. All passengers were deplaned, and crews checked the aircraft for explosives.
During questioning, the man gave his real name and date of birth. He showed a United Airlines confirmation number and a boarding pass. Investigators found that he had made a reservation, but it was never ticketed. They described the boarding pass as possibly fake, noting missing information and a forged QR code.
Officers chose not to take him to jail at that time. He started recording the airport and law enforcement before leaving. The flight was delayed three hours.
The incident took place on May 18. Abdulrahman Oriyomi was arrested on Friday and charged with a felony for interrupting the operation of a critical infrastructure facility.
How The Security Layers Performed
Several checkpoints failed during the event. TSA normally authenticates identification, matches a passenger to a reservation, and runs the person against screening databases.
The unticketed reservation may have met the initial check, or the man may have been processed as an exception. Identification exceptions occur daily across millions of passengers.
The gate process worked during his first attempt. Staff turned him away after his boarding pass failed to scan twice. However, no follow-up action took place after that rejection. He later boarded a different flight, and the full passenger load exposed his lack of an assigned seat.
The delay in arrest also stands out. The man received only a warning at first and left the airport before facing charges nearly two weeks later.
Similar Boarding Breaches At Other Airlines
Cases like this remain uncommon but not unknown. For a period, similar events appeared most often with Delta Air Lines (DL).
One passenger with no identification or boarding pass cleared TSA, boarded a Delta Air Lines (DL) flight, and turned up in another passenger’s seat. In a widely reported 2024 case, a passenger reached Paris (CDG) from New York JFK after passing TSA without a boarding pass and boarding a sold-out flight. That person also moved between lavatories during the journey.
A Christmas Eve Delta Air Lines flight from Seattle (SEA) to Honolulu (HNL) had a passenger who cleared TSA with no boarding pass and got past the gate agent. The crew found the person as the aircraft taxied. Everyone left the aircraft, including the suspect, who was later located in a terminal restroom.
In a separate case, a person photographed a child’s boarding pass to board a plane. The system flagged the pass as already used, but the gate agent overrode the alert. That passenger also hid in the lavatory.
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