A Texas man was arrested in Salt Lake City on Sunday after he was caught loitering on a Delta Air Lines flight without his assigned seat. How did he get on the plane in the first place? The man allegedly photographed other passengers’ boarding passes without their knowledge and successfully used them to board the plane.
Wicliff Yves Fleurizard, a 26-year-old man from Texas, told police he was on a ski trip in Utah but needed to return to Texas to visit family who had arrived from Florida. Fleurizadeh successfully passed through security at Salt Lake City International Airport using his Florida ID and boarding pass, according to an official who spoke with the Transportation Security Administration. New York Times Wednesday.
But it’s unclear whether the boarding pass Fleurizadeh used to get through security was the same one he presented when he actually boarded the plane at the gate on Sunday. According to court documents, authorities saw Fleurizadeh taking photos of “multiple passengers on their cellphones and/or boarding passes without them noticing.” However, documents show the activity took place in the “boarding area,” suggesting he used a different boarding pass to pass through TSA security.
According to court documents, a “minor female passenger” encountered problems while trying to board a flight out of Salt Lake City. When her boarding pass was scanned, “the system showed she was already on board.” The girl was traveling alone with a ticket purchased by her father, and airport surveillance footage allegedly showed Fleurizadeh filming the girl’s cell phone.
The crew apparently noticed something was wrong immediately after Fleurizard boarded the plane and he tried to open the door to the emergency equipment storage room. A flight attendant took him to the bathroom, presumably because he looked confused, and Fleurizadeh “spent a long time in the bathroom” without locking the door.
When everyone else on the plane had finished boarding, Fleurizadeh left the bathroom at the front and headed to the bathroom at the rear of the plane. It was then that the flight attendants truly realized something was wrong, as the flight was full and there were no more empty seats on the plane. When asked about his seat, Fleurizard replied that he was in seat 21F, even though that seat was obviously occupied.
After the flight attendant verified that the passenger on the 21st floor had paid for the ticket, the plane returned to the boarding gate. After his arrest, Fleurizadeh “admitted that he had made a mistake and just wanted to go home,” according to court documents. Fleurizadeh has been charged with illegal immigration, but it is unclear when his next court appearance will be.
