Serial Stowaway flies ORD-LHR
Jan 19, 2018, 10:12 pm
#1
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Serial Stowaway flies ORD-LHR
A 66-year-old Grayslake [Illinois] woman with a history of trying to sneak onto airline flights managed to slip past security and took a flight from O’Hare International Airport to London earlier this week.
Chicago police say Marilyn Hartman boarded the flight Sunday afternoon without a ticket.
Hartman slipped by a distracted TSA agent in O’Hare’s Terminal 3, somehow made it to the international terminal and slipped past a busy gate agent to board a British Airways flight to London.
Sources say O’Hare security video shows Hartman had been wandering the airport for two days and no one questioned her.
Once on the London-bound plane, sources say, Hartman hid in a bathroom and eventually walked out and found a seat. When she couldn’t produce a passport Monday at Heathrow Airport, officials sent her back to O’Hare, where she was taken into custody Thursday.
Chicago police say Marilyn Hartman boarded the flight Sunday afternoon without a ticket.
Hartman slipped by a distracted TSA agent in O’Hare’s Terminal 3, somehow made it to the international terminal and slipped past a busy gate agent to board a British Airways flight to London.
Sources say O’Hare security video shows Hartman had been wandering the airport for two days and no one questioned her.
Once on the London-bound plane, sources say, Hartman hid in a bathroom and eventually walked out and found a seat. When she couldn’t produce a passport Monday at Heathrow Airport, officials sent her back to O’Hare, where she was taken into custody Thursday.
Jan 19, 2018, 10:54 pm
#2
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Ouch, that will be expensive for BA. I'm amazed she could make it past security without producing a boarding pass. Similarly, how do you get past the gate without a boarding pass?
Jan 19, 2018, 10:57 pm
#3
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I knew it! She was really crazy!! She was banned ORD, MDW, Greyhound, and Amtrak, as well. She was not supposed to be there. Why does she doing it? She didn't listen from the judge.
Jan 20, 2018, 12:39 am
#4
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A lawyer in a silly frock sending her to jail (possibly again) is going to have precisely zero effect on somebody suffering from mental illness.
Jan 20, 2018, 1:11 am
#5
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BA (rightly) will get a big fine for this but it does make you wonder about security these days. I do think they are too focussed on bottles of water.
Jan 20, 2018, 2:04 am
#6
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Wow that’s crazy, she would have had to pass so many points of security unnoticed to manage that ! At least she couldn’t get past passport control on arrival !
Jan 20, 2018, 2:15 am
#8
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Indeed I'm almost surprised she didn't make it, given she's clearly quite adept at this sneaking business.
Of course her success will also have required an element of luck at each step of the way, and that ran out at LHR. That's assuming she did in fact try to enter rather than get sent home.
A big embarrassment for the TSA, BA's GHAs at the gate, and the BA crew checking BPs at the door, all of whom failed to do their job properly.
Of course her success will also have required an element of luck at each step of the way, and that ran out at LHR. That's assuming she did in fact try to enter rather than get sent home.
A big embarrassment for the TSA, BA's GHAs at the gate, and the BA crew checking BPs at the door, all of whom failed to do their job properly.
Jan 20, 2018, 2:23 am
#9
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Indeed I'm almost surprised she didn't make it, given she's clearly quite adept at this sneaking business.
Of course her success will also have required an element of luck at each step of the way, and that ran out at LHR. That's assuming she did in fact try to enter rather than get sent home.
A big embarrassment for the TSA, BA's GHAs at the gate, and the BA crew checking BPs at the door, all of whom failed to do their job properly.
Of course her success will also have required an element of luck at each step of the way, and that ran out at LHR. That's assuming she did in fact try to enter rather than get sent home.
A big embarrassment for the TSA, BA's GHAs at the gate, and the BA crew checking BPs at the door, all of whom failed to do their job properly.
Jan 20, 2018, 2:24 am
#10
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I seem to recall Kevin McCallister did this at ORD a few years ago.
Jan 20, 2018, 2:44 am
#11
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Jan 20, 2018, 2:48 am
#13
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Certainly on the BA longhaul flights. They have stopped checking them on the UK domestic legs.
Regards
TBS
Jan 20, 2018, 3:01 am
#14
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The article mentions she couldn’t produce a passport when she arrived at Heathrow but she must have had one (fake or otherwise) when she boarded, surely
Jan 20, 2018, 3:02 am
#15
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Was I the only person who opened this thread with the impression it would be about a persistent infestation of flies on BA aircraft on this route…?
I was expecting complaints about cleaning and questions around fumigation!
I was expecting complaints about cleaning and questions around fumigation!