A Delta Air Lines passenger told ABC News that a man followed her family through the terminal before boarding the same plane without a ticket.
Lauren Benton, her husband and their children, aged nine and six, flew from Washington Dulles International Airport to her home in Georgia on August 2nd.
She told USA Today that the man apparently followed her and her daughter into the bathroom.
“My heart immediately started pounding – I didn’t know what this man was up to,” Benton told ABC News. “He was standing in the ladies’ room washing his hands and I was immediately alarmed.”
Benton said the man even appeared to follow the family onto the plane and sat in the same row.
She told ABC News that her husband confronted the man, who claimed it was his assigned seat. But when they summoned a flight attendant who asked for his boarding pass, he could not produce one, she added.
The man was subsequently escorted off the flight.
A Transportation Security Administration spokesman told media that the man had a valid ID and a boarding pass for another flight that same day and was therefore able to get through security.
The man was not named.
Delta said in a statement to several media outlets that the company is investigating the case and is in contact with airport authorities.
“Delta has procedures in place that allow gate agents and flight crew to verify prior to departure that the people on board the aircraft are customers booked on that particular flight,” it said.
Delta and the TSA did not immediately respond to Business Insider’s requests for comment outside of U.S. business hours.
In a statement provided to BI, the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority confirmed that police were called to the gate of a departing Delta flight.
“Police have spoken to the customer and no charges have been filed,” they added. “The passenger exited the aircraft and returned to the terminal to continue their journey.”
USA Today reported that authorities said the man appeared to have mental health issues.
Several similar incidents have been reported in recent months, with several cases linked to automatic ticket barriers and the tracking of other passengers.
On August 4 and 5, the same man managed to sneak onto two planes at Munich Airport. The second time, he flew to Sweden, but then aroused suspicion because he wanted to return to Munich immediately, Bild reported.
In March, a man was arrested after prosecutors said he boarded a Delta flight using a photo of another passenger’s ticket.
A month earlier, another man had boarded a plane at London Gatwick Airport by hanging on to other passengers at the checkpoints.
