Delta Assisting Law Enforcement in Investigation of Unticketed Individual Incident

A man was detained after he reportedly used a picture of another passenger’s ticket to board a Delta flight.

TFD – Explore the incident involving an unticketed individual on a Delta Air Lines flight and the ongoing investigation.

According to court filings, a Texas man was detained after using a picture he snapped of a fellow passenger’s boarding pass to board a Delta Air Lines flight in Salt Lake City on Sunday without a ticket.

A lawsuit against Wicliff Yves Fleurizard, 26, was filed on Monday in U.S. district court in Utah. He is charged with one count of stowing away on a vessel or aircraft.

Security footage from Salt Lake City International Airport purports to show Fleurizard taking pictures of several passengers’ phones and boarding passes before the plane was even loaded. Fleurizard then allegedly used his own phone to board the flight to Austin, Texas.

Once on the plane, Fleurizard went to the lavatory at the front of the aircraft and spent “a significant amount of time” there while other passengers boarded, the complaint said.

The complaint stated that Fleurizard “left the front lavatory and made his way to the back of the aircraft and entered the aft lavatory just before the aircraft doors were secured, after boarding was complete.”

The complaint stated that the jet had already pushed back from the gate and was taxiing down the runway when Fleurizard came out of the restroom and a flight attendant approached him to help him as there were no seats available.

Fleurizard claimed to the flight attendant that his seat was 21F, but the complaint stated that the crew member had confirmed that the individual who had bought the ticket for that seat was already occupying it.

The plane returned to the gate, and Fleurizard was greeted by law enforcement after flight attendants discovered he didn’t have a ticket or reservation after learning his true name, according to the lawsuit.

According to the statement, Fleurizard told authorities that he “needed to get home to see his family” after visiting Park City, Utah, for a snowboarding trip. According to the complaint, he claimed he had a reservation on a Southwest Airlines aircraft earlier on Sunday, but the trip was overbooked, so he was moved to a later flight.

The allegation stated that Flaurizard “admitted he had made a mistake and was only trying to get home.”

According to authorities, he is being held at Salt Lake County Metro Jail under a federal detainer, CNN said.

It is unknown to CNN if Fleurizard is represented by a lawyer.

According to Morgan Durrant, a spokesman for Delta Air Lines, the airline is assisting with the inquiry.

“Delta is assisting law enforcement and pertinent federal agencies in their inquiry concerning the escorting of an unticketed individual from an aircraft in Salt Lake City before its scheduled departure. We refer any further inquiries to law enforcement,” a statement from Durrant said.