A man has been charged with federal “national security crimes” by the Department of Justice for his conduct of surreptitiously trying to board a Delta Air flight in Salt Lake City without a valid ticket.
Man Charged With National Security Crimes For Sneaking onto Delta Air Lines Flight
First, let’s review what happened and then we will get the legal ramifications.
26-year-old Wicliff Fleurizard desperately wanted to return to Texas. He was in Salt Lake City (SLC) and attempting to use a Southwest Airlines buddy pass (i.e. a reduced-priced standby ticket given to him by a Southwest employee).
But his flight to Austin (AUS) was full…he was unable to score a space-available seat on it. Rather than attempt to fly to Dallas (DAL) or Houston (HOU), Fleurizard attempted to fly to Austin…on Delta…without a ticket.
- He proceeded to the gate area for the Delta-operated flight to Austin
- Flight 1683 on Sunday, March 17, 2024
- Clandestinely, he managed to grab a picture of the boarding pass of another passenger
- Airport surveillance video later confirmed this (see photo above)
- He used that boarding pass to board the flight, since airlines generally do not match ID with the name on the boarding pass for US domestic flights
- Onboard, knowing that the real passenger would show up, he hid in the rear lavatory
- Because unlike on Southwest, Delta does not have open-seating
- His plan was to wait until the flight fully boarded, then grab the first open seat he could find
- But after the plane began to taxi, he emerged from the lavatory and found that every seat was occupied
- The flight attendants became alarmed, called the cockpit, and the flight returned to the gate
- The man was arrested
> Read More: How A Desperate Southwest Airlines Passenger Snuck Unto A Delta Air Lines Flight And Almost Got Away With It
Surveillance footage essentially indicts him. He can clearly be seen taking surreptitious photos of other people’s boarding passes and then using his mobile phone to board.
Fleurizard is charged with being a stowaway on an aircraft, and access device fraud. He was previously arrested in Austin in June 2023 over claims he assaulted a family member.
I have to chuckle, at least a little bit. Last night as I was reviewing content for today I read over the DOJ press release I linked to above and had to snicker at the “national security crimes” in the first sentence. It certainly makes an attention-grabbing headline, but the national security element is something I take exception to.
This guy is a fraudster. A stupid one. Clever in almost pulling it off, but not so clever enough to realize that he would be caught immediately if every seat on the flight was taken.
But is he a national security risk? Here is where I take exception to such grandiose verbiage and tools like the “No Fly List” which seems redundant to me if every passenger has to undergo a security checkpoint screening before entering the secure side of the airport.
Last month, the US Supreme Court issued a unanimous ruling that a lawsuit against the US government could proceed for placing a US citizen of Eritrean descent on the federal “No Fly List” even though the US argued it had since removed him and therefore there was no basis for the claim.
On the contrary, the Court ruled that the government’s pledge that he would not be placed back on the list “based on the currently available information” did not show that it “cannot reasonably be expected to” put him on the list again in the future.
That case will now make its way through lower courts, but the link there and between Fleurizard above is that cooking up charges and hiding behind “national security” grounds is nothing new.
CONCLUSION
A man faces stowaway and access device fraud charges for trying to wiggle his way onboard a Delta flight from Salt Lake City to Austin. I see more fraud than national security concerns, but this case serves as an important reminder that trying to sneak onboard an airplane is a foolish endeavor.
top image: LinkedIn
It’s a plot changer when 23B actually shows up! Ada Quonsett would have some modern tools today . . .
I love that!!!
Intent is the key . A person might have been a national security risk ONLY IF he had had such intent .
Intent is very important in any charging decision .
I have been reading about self-checkout machines in markets where a person accidently leaves a cookie in their cart ? Why charge the person with a non-intentional omission ? I’ve never seen those machines , myself .
Rather silly for a NYC Trump jury to be judging Trump’s intent on a simple hush-money case . A public figure with a reputation to protect would pay hush money to hush up someone who complains , whether the complaint is righteous or not … that’s all .
Alert hush money paid to suppress justice is a crime.
Infidelity isn’t a crime.
My comment referred to the last sentence. Not infidelity
@Maryland … +1 . I was thinking of the sort of situation when someone a millionaire dated , with photos together , started sending letters threatening to expose the millionaire , whether justified or not .
Prince Andrew’s payments come to mind . He was not criminally charged for paying her ,
The British prince wasn’t running for elected office in the US in a way that subjects him to US campaign finance disclosure requirements and other election-related rules then applicable to Trump as a candidate running for election to a public office of the United States. Not all hush money payments in the world are equal.
The trial is farce, Alvin Bragg is a joke and prosecuting a federal election statute at the city level is blatant misconduct.
Having said that, NYC is full of mentally ill Leftists who would convict Trump of killing JFK.
Fortunately an appeals will eventually overturn this but the people who’ve beclowned themselves will get six figure gigs on MSNBC.
Alvin Bragg is prosecuting Trump for 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in the first degree to cover up a sex scandal. Trump has a clear nexus allowing for Bragg to lawfully prosecute Trump for those felony counts, including the felony counts related to “hush money” payments.
The DOJ are somewhere between being chicken and strategic when it comes to Trump and the DOJ’s dragging of their feet on taking Trump to task to the full extent permissible under the law. The narcissistic psychopath unfortunately was more correct than mistaken when he claimed he could commit a crime in plain sight even on Fifth Ave and get away with it. Justice delayed is justice denied and he’s trying to delay justice so he has more of a chance to escape justice and avoid being held accountable for his crimes and other sleazy ways.
Paying people to sign an NDA isn’t a crime.
Saying that it should be listed as a campaign expense is absurd.
Cy Vance passed on the case in 2021 and it wasn’t Matthew Colangelo was dispatched to NY by the Biden DOJ that they somehow turned a misdemeanor, at best, into a felony.
Hate Trump all you want but this is embarrassing for the justice system and the country.
What ought to be considered embarrassing is how the country voted for a narcissistic, psychopathic, Putin-loving, mythomaniac con-man to be President, seems likely to do so yet again this November. and how slow and inactive the justice system is when it comes to Trump’s civil and criminal violations over the years. That’s where the real “national security” threat is — not with some stupid cheapskate stowaway who stole someone else’s boarding pass material to try to fly home.
#agreed
Right on.
At this point Trump can defecate all over both the US flag and constitution and his fans would make every excuse and come up with every deflection they could to justify it.
And despite all of that…Trump still beat Hillary.
No wonder you’re angry.
“National security crime”? The DOJ’s de facto PR people have lost the plot and their mind if they think that a stowaway and access fraud by a security-screened passenger like this is a “national security” crime. At this pace, they may as well call illegal payment of hush money to a porn actress a “national security crime”.
So now I have to worry about someone surreptitiously taking a photo of my boarding pass on the app if I look at it? Yikes!
Even without any photographing of your boarding pass, note this: if you are a checked luggage type traveler, then a photo of a checked bag tag may be used to get enough info — name and record locator — for someone else to get a boarding pass pushed out by the airline/airport kiosks or on the airline website/app.
Fleurizard had other open warrants that flagged him as violent. The details of those crimes were not released. The nature of the prior incident may reflect on recent charges.
The details of his criminal record have made the public rounds. The crimes seemed to be of a non-“national security” type too, such as the all too typical assault sort and such.
Illegal and walk across the border, they shower you with gift cards, clothes and other valuables. Try to fly in and it’s suddenly a national security threat. This is reaching a level of comedy no one could make up.
Your first sentence seems to be making up quite a bit…
That’s the issue with the U.S. system of justice. Each federal U.S. attorney operates in their own fiefdom, so they may zealously prosecute crimes that warrant a lighter approach in order to get publicity for their future political ambitions.
Sort of, and yet most USAs don’t seem to do much in the public limelight after a new USA is confirmed as their replacement. Instead they mostly seem to go into private practice and/or a teaching position and maybe sometimes do the corporate counsel thing. There are exceptions, such as the former USA in the SDNY who ruined his legacy and was formerly
known as “America’s mayor”.
You are only thinking of the USAs you hear about. I am talking the politically appointed USAs and not the AUSAs. The one in KY ran for Attorney General in KY and won.
I was talking about those who have been USAs and not the much larger number of AUSAs. Although the paths followed outside DOJ aren’t always all that different except the USAs have their own alumni association events. 😉
Some drama in the government press release and charges, agreed!!
However, the bigger issue is:
– his capacity to board based on a “photo” of an existing boarding pass
– failure of the gate agents to raise a red flag
– failure of Delta to properly supervise and/or train the gate agents
This is a gaping hole in the entire security system!
The entire airline industry needs to take note!
Think how many times this has happen without detection till now!
This is something that can’t be shrugged off by Delta via a press release.
Someone at Delta has to take responsibility.
Let’s make Ed clean plates in the Skyclub for a month.
Worse! Send Ed to serve time in the United Club or Admirals Club. Delta flyers seem to think these places are punishment
/s
The UA club in MSP is poor in terms of food when compared to the DL lounges in MSP, but I find the UA club at MSP far more relaxing than the crowded messes that are too often the DL lounges at MSP.
The UA clubs today are better than they used to be. That said, the DL lounges of today are also much better than what they used to be 20 years ago. But they are now more crowded, and so in that regard they are worse.
I board flights many times based on a photo of the boarding passes. Just happens those photos are of my boarding passes or that of my travel party members. I hope they don’t go for scannable codes that are non-static.
The way for a gate agent to routinely stop someone from boarding like this with someone else’s boarding pass is to ask for ID during the boarding process. I hope they don’t go for that dog and pony show of “ID is security”, as that too would slow things down for me.
He should just claim to be an “undocumented migrant” and score a debit card instead of prosecution.
What silly nonsense.
Its about sending a message to any future copy catters.
Good point
Yes, unfortunately.
Justice shouldn’t be about playing PR games to try to deter others — in fact that is exactly what Qaddafi and the Taliban would do by publicly broadcasting corporal and capital punishment for public viewing and they would claim public deterrence efforts this way is justice.
Justice should be tailored to the crime committed by the individual prosecuted. Unfortunately, the way “justice” is done in the country is too often less about justice than it is about public virtue signaling and laying the ground work for an easier conviction or guilty plea.
I would like to nitpick over this language: “26-year-old Wicliff Fleurizard desperately wanted to return to Texas”. I think it’s more accurate to say he was “eager” to return to Texas.
Here’s the thing: They guy had a standby ticket and that’s what standby means: You fly when space is available. If he had urgent travel, the proper thing to do is pay for a normal ticket.
Let’s consider the morality of him engaging in identity theft by scanning someone else’s ticket. In theory, it’s no harm done if the flight wasn’t full because then the actual passenger could show his credentials and board regardless. It’s not like credit card or bank fraud. If the seat would have been empty regardless, it’s largely a victimless crime.
The problem is that it’s a literal federal crime and it’s still identity theft. I DO see how the feds can argue that this is a national security implication since the Feds now demand that every passenger be monitored.
“National security crime” would be a more relevant characterization of the huge number of American males who failed to register or keep updated their registration for selective service while between the ages of 18-25 years. We are talking about a huge number of American men — primarily and disproportionately those of European-American background — who committed such federal crimes with national security implications (and yet were generally ignored by the USA Offices and main DOJ for those massive number of registration and registration update failures even after being told by mail and/or at schools that they needed to do it). Justice is not blind and it is selective as some are more likely to be “overpoliced” than others. But sometimes the complicating factor is that for a crime to have taken place there must be a mens rea factor — absent which there is no crime. Either way, the idea that this stowaway/access theft incident is a “national security crime” is just PR nonsense. Most federal crimes are really not “national security crimes”, nor are these really.
I’m curious, what evidence do you have of, quote, “primarily and disproportionately those of European-American background” engaging in selective service registration violations whether intentionally or not? “primarily” would apply, of course, in that European-American background men comprise the largest demographic of men in the nation, but “disproportionately?”
It amazes me how he’s been charged with “National Security Crimes” but the old white lady in Chicago has done it DOZENS of times and only received a slap on the wrist!! She had been caught doing it recently and was told not to enter the airport UNLESS she had a valid ticket, but guess what!? She did it again DAYS later!! They did NOTHING to her, but he has been charged with “National Security Crimes”!!! This clearly shows the disparities in this country.
Everytime GUWonder posts it makes me pray he gets diagnosed with cancer.
May your unkind heart and twisted mind find mercy and get the help you need. And may your body not face the karma you wish upon others.
For your information, I have no relevant family medical history of anyone dying of cancer before at least the age of 97 years and even that exception was about as quick and merciful as any cancer ever is in the species.
I am always curious why strangers in this day and age presume a person is male when they aren’t in a position to verify. Could it be the reverse case of Pucci Galore, a man who has been assumed to be female but isn’t? Inquiring minds want to know.