Air travel

Stowaway who flew to Paris removed from flight back to New York after causing disturbance, source says

The woman is in custody in France, a source told NBC News.

Delta JFK
Daniel Acker/Bloomberg via Getty Images

A Delta Air Lines plane taxis toward a gate between other Delta planes at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York.

The stowaway who boarded a flight in New York and made it all the way to Paris on Tuesday was removed from her return flight to the U.S. after she caused a disturbance, a source said Sunday.

A source with knowledge of the situation said the woman "created a disturbance" as the Delta flight was set to return to New York.

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She was removed from the plane and is in French custody, the source said.

Additional details about the nature of the disturbance were not immediately available.

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Delta confirmed there was a delay on Flight 265 from Paris to New York on Saturday due to an unruly passenger. It did not release any additional information.

The woman, who got on the flight to Paris last week without a boarding pass, bypassed two “identity verification and boarding status stations and boarded the aircraft,” a spokesperson for the Transportation Security Administration said in a statement Wednesday. She completed a full security screening before she boarded Delta Flight 264 from John F. Kennedy International Airport to Charles de Gaulle Airport on Tuesday. That means she was not carrying any prohibited items and did not pose a security threat, the TSA said Wednesday.

Law enforcement officers removed her from the plane when it landed in Paris, a source with knowledge of the incident said Wednesday.

A spokesperson for France's border police said a Russian passenger who stowed away on a flight from JFK to Charles de Gaulle was refused entry to France because she did not have a valid travel document or visa.

The woman, who had a valid U.S. residence permit, was placed in a holding zone to be returned to the U.S., the spokesperson said.

The public prosecutor for Pontoise, north of Paris, did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the initial incident or the alleged disturbance.

It is not clear how the woman was able to bypass ticketing stations to get on the plane Tuesday, and Delta said it would investigate.

"Nothing is of greater importance than matters of safety and security," it said in a statement. "That's why Delta is conducting an exhaustive investigation of what may have occurred and will work collaboratively with other aviation stakeholders and law enforcement to that end."

This story first appeared on NBCNews.com. More from NBC News:

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