‘Stowaway’ hid in bathroom of Delta flight, feds say. Now, Texas man sentenced
A Texas man with no boarding pass hid in the rear bathroom of a Delta Air Lines plane, trying to fly to Austin for free last year, federal prosecutors said.
But the Delta flight crew confronted the accused “stowaway,” who, according to prosecutors, forced the flight to return to the gate at the Salt Lake City International Airport in Utah on March 17, 2024.
Now, the 27-year-old Leander, Texas, resident has been sentenced to about six months of time served on a felony offense and was fined $5,000, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Utah said in a May 20 news release.
The man’s court-appointed federal public defender didn’t immediately return McClatchy News’ request for comment May 21.
On March 11, the man pleaded guilty to being a stowaway on an aircraft, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.
He acknowledged sneaking onto the Delta flight in a statement included in his plea agreement.
“Upon entering the aircraft, I hid myself in the rear lavatory,” his statement said.
According to prosecutors, a flight attendant first noticed the man opening the aircraft’s emergency equipment storage door, then guided him to a bathroom at the front of the plane, McClatchy News reported.
In an affidavit, a federal task force officer with the Salt Lake City Police Department wrote the man “spent a significant amount of time in the lavatory while others were boarding, and he did not lock the door while occupying the lavatory.”
Then, the man was accused of making his way to the back of the plane, where he hid in the other bathroom.
How did he board the flight?
At the Salt Lake City Airport, surveillance footage captured the man taking photos of other travelers’ personal information on his phone before boarding the Delta flight, according to prosecutors.
He used their information to secure a boarding pass, allowing him to board, prosecutors said.
Flight attendants couldn’t find the man’s name or a valid ticket for him when searching the plane’s list of travelers — resulting in the plane returning to the gate, according to prosecutors, McClatchy News reported.
In an interview with law enforcement, the man said he “needed to get home to see his family,” according to court documents.
When contacted by McClatchy News for comment in April 2024, a Delta Air Lines spokesperson told McClatchy News that “We have zero tolerance for unlawful conduct on flights and at airports and we will always cooperate fully with law enforcement to that end.”
As part of the man’s sentence, the judge also sentenced him to three years of supervised release.
In a statement, Mehtab Syed, the special Agent in charge of the FBI’s Salt Lake City office, said the man’s “actions were not only disruptive to passengers, it also compromised the safety and security for all on board.”
“The sentence holds him accountable for trespassing, theft, and fraud,” Syed said.
This story was originally published May 21, 2025 at 11:00 AM with the headline "‘Stowaway’ hid in bathroom of Delta flight, feds say. Now, Texas man sentenced."
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