At a time when the entire world is giving paramount importance to security, a major security lapse took place in US.
Outsmarting security officials, a homeless woman not only managed to get on board the British Airways plane but also flew from America to London without a ticket or passport.
Marilyn Hartman slipped on to the jet with a large group after she got through security at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport and boarded a flight to Heathrow, police said.
The airline crew realised that the woman was flying without a ticket and was held at Heathrow and sent back to Chicago. Hartman, 66, appeared in court for theft and trespassing and police said that she spent 24 hours at Chicago airport before boarding but airport staff assumed she was simply confused.
However, this is not the first time that Hartman has been detained for trying to bypass airport security in the US and claimed she may have boarded planes without a ticket eight times. She also told police that she felt safer inside the airports than living on the streets.
Hartman was caught three years ago trying to sneak on to a plane at the same airport just hours after she was let out of prison. While in 2016 she was placed on mental health probation for two years.
The Transportation Security Administration, investigating the matter, said, “Upon learning of the incident TSA, and its aviation partners took immediate action to review security practices throughout the airport.”