Just a few weeks after it emerged that TSA screeners in Honolulu weren't screening all baggage, it looks like a TSA screener in New York allowed a Nigerian man to get on a flight to Los Angeles with a bogus boarding pass.
It wasn't until after Virgin America Flight 415 took off from John F. Kennedy International Airport on Friday that the airline discovered the man, identified as Olajide Oluwaseun Noibi, wasn't supposed to be on the flight, according to an FBI affidavit.
But authorities did not arrest him Friday. They arrested him this week, on Wednesday, when he returned to LAX airport in Los Angeles and tried to fraudulently board a Delta flight bound for Atlanta.
Noibi, an electrical engineering student at the University of Michigan, was spotted by a flight attendant in a seat that was supposed to be empty. Under questioning, Noibi pulled out a boarding pass for the day's previous flight. The pass was also in someone else's name, and Noibi's name wasn't on the flight manifest. Despite this, the flight continued on to LAX. He was only caught because an FBI and a customs agent happened to be at the Delta gate at LAX when he tried to get on the flight to Atlanta. A search revealed that Noibi had 12 other boarding passes, none in his name.
There are several major fails here. TSA screeners are supposed to match the boarding pass to the passenger's ID. So the TSA's claim that Noibi went through screening simply doesn't wash. Additionally, you really have to wonder why the captain of the Virgin America flight decided to continue on to LAX. A passenger who isn't on the flight manifest, using a boarding pass that doesn't belong to him--to my non-pilot's mind, that pretty much screams for an emergency landing.
Apparently this isn't the only lie Noibi has told. His LinkedIn profile lists him as co-founder, president and CEO of a software company. However, CNN learned that Noibi is only a consultant.