Moments before take-off, a man was removed from a United Airlines flight in Houston after allegedly boarding the aircraft with a fake boarding pass.
Abdulrahman Oriyomi, 25, managed to pass through security and board a flight to Los Angeles before an attentive passenger, concerned by his repeated trips back and forth to the restroom, alerted a flight attendant. The plane was subsequently taxied back to the gate.
The incident happened on 18 May, and Oriyomi was charged with felony impairment or interruption of a critical infrastructure facility, according to court records filed last week in Harris County, Texas.
According to the complaint, CCTV footage shows Oriyomi seemingly having trouble with his boarding pass before being escorted to another TSA booth. There, his picture is taken and he is allowed to go through security into the terminal.
Later, he is reportedly turned away at different gates after his boarding pass does not work until he spos a busy gate where attendants are occupied with other passengers.
“As Defendant Oriyomi approaches he intentionally waits for the United employees to be preoccupied with other passengers. He then pretends he is going to show his boarding pass, walks past the United employees, then proceeds down the jetway while the two United employees are still distracted,” the complaint states.
Once on board, Oriyomi reportedly took a seat but rapidly disappeared into the restroom. When he came out, he found the rightful passenger occupying the seat he had been using, so he picked another one and repeated the same scenario several times, as the plane was full.
He was in the restroom as the plane began to pull away from the gate when a passenger alerted a flight attendant. After repeatedly failing to return to his seat and identifying himself as “M. Lopez”, flight attendants checked the passenger list and found nobody on board under that name.
After he was removed from the aircraft, the plane underwent a thorough search for explosives by the Houston Police Department’s K-9 unit.
According to the complaint, Oriyomi had apparently tried to make a booking, but the reservation was cancelled due to non-payment.
As he left the airport, Oriyomi received a trespass warning, which he filmed on his phone.
The flight ended up being delayed by three hours. Oriyomi was arrested a few days after the incident for allegedly intentionally impairing or interrupting the operation of a critical infrastructure facility. He is due to appear in Harris County Court for a bail review.
United Airlines referred questions to the Houston Police Department, while Houston Airports referred CNN to the TSA for security screening information, adding that “all security screening measures are implemented by federal and local authorities”.
The TSA told CNN in a statement that “the individual in question presented a valid boarding pass at George Bush Intercontinental Airport. The individual did go through standard screening and did not possess any prohibited items.”
However, according to the complaint, the boarding pass later used by Oriyomi appeared to be fake, as it was “missing key information and the QR code appeared to be forged”.
It is not the first stowaway case reported in recent years. In February, a passenger without a ticket or ID managed to pass through security at Nashville International Airport and travel on an American Airlines flight to Los Angeles before being discovered.
In March 2024, a man boarded a Delta Air Lines flight using someone else’s ticket and was discovered hiding in the aircraft’s toilets just before take-off, in a case bearing similarities to last month’s incident.
