Delta Air Lines has refused to transport a Russian woman who stowed away on a flight from New York to Paris last week, according to a Paris airport official. The 57-year-old woman, a legal resident of the United States, was scheduled to leave France on a flight on Tuesday (December 3), but Delta declined to fly her. The woman was onboard the plane when the decision was made.
"We are going to try to send her back again with a French escort," the official said.
The woman had managed to bypass multiple security checkpoints at New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport and board a plane to Paris without a ticket. She was scheduled to be on a flight back to the U.S. on Saturday afternoon, but French authorities removed her from the aircraft after she began screaming.
A man on the plane told CNN that the woman kept saying, "I do not want to go back to the USA. Only a judge can make me go back to the USA."
Authorities in the US are continuing to investigate how the woman was able to sneak onto the initial Delta flight without a ticket. Inspectors from the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) are preparing a civil case against the stowaway after reviewing airport security video from inside John F. Kennedy International Airport.
"The TSA will open civil cases against passengers when there’s evidence that procedures may have been violated," TSA spokesperson Alexa Lopez told CNN.
The woman is expected to be accompanied by six U.S. marshals on her next flight back to New York.