By ,
Published December 01, 2015
A Nigerian national boarded a Virgin America flight from New York to Los Angeles last week without a passport and with an expired boarding pass that did not belong to him, Fox News confirms.
Authorities are looking into how Olajide Oluwaseun Noib boarded Virgin America Flight 415 at John F. Kennedy International Airport on June 24 without a valid passport or identification.
Mid-flight from New York to Los Angeles, a flight attendant noticed Noibi was sitting in a seat that was supposed to be vacant. Noibi showed the attendant the expired boarding pass that was in someone else's name, and then showed him a University of Michigan identification card with his picture on it.
University of Michigan spokeswoman Kelly Cunningham said that Noibi is not a current student, but was enrolled as an engineering student at Ann Arbor between 2004 and 2006.
The boarding pass belonged to a man who said his boarding pass went missing from his pocket on his way to the airport June 23. Noibi boarded the plane with the expired pass the next day.
Noibi was arrested Wednesday when law enforcement officials saw him trying to board another flight and discovered he had "10 boarding passes in various individual's names," according to an FBI affidavit obtained by FoxNews.com.
Noibi has been charged with being a stowaway.
Los Angeles FBI spokeswoman Laura Eimiller says that when the Virgin America flight crew determined the man had an invalid boarding pass, law enforcement was notified and was asked to meet the plane on arrival early Saturday at Los Angeles International Airport.
There was no immediate threat to the aircraft so the flight wasn't diverted, Eimiller said.
FBI Agent Kevin R. Hogg met the flight and detained and questioned Noibi. "He wasn't arrested at that time. Beyond traveling without a ticket there was no immediate threat," Eimiller said.
"He wasn't actually charged and arrested until [Wednesday]. A U.S. District Court hearing Wednesday was postponed until Friday at 10:30 a.m. PDT. He's still in custody pending that hearing," Eimiller added.
"Every passenger that passes through security checkpoints is subject to many layers of security including thorough physical screening at the checkpoint," Transportation Security Administration spokesman Greg Soule said in statement Thursday. "TSA's review of this matter indicates that the passenger went through screening." TSA would not comment on what else happened, citing an ongoing FBI investigation.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
https://www.foxnews.com/us/investigation-launched-after-nigerian-man-boards-u-s-plane-with-expired-boarding-pass-no-passport