A man boarded a United Airlines plane at Houston's Bush Intercontinental Airport using a fake boarding pass, in what authorities are describing as a stunning security breach. He is now facing multiple felony charges, and the incident has raised fresh security concerns just as the summer travel season heats up.
Police identified the man as 25-year-old Abdulrahman Oriyami. According to a criminal complaint, he managed to get past TSA screening on the morning of May 18, despite having a canceled flight reservation, with a boarding pass that appeared to be a forgery.
The complaint lays out how he allegedly made his way onto the aircraft. He first approached a gate and tried twice to scan the fake boarding pass but failed. More than an hour later, he approached another gate, walked past busy United gate agents, and boarded United Flight 469 bound for Los Angeles.
Once on board, the charging documents say, Oriyami hid in the plane's restroom as it taxied toward the runway. He was not detected until a passenger noticed something was wrong and notified the crew, prompting staff to check his status.
When the crew realized he was not booked on the flight, the plane returned to the gate. There he was met by police officers, the FBI and an Explosive Detection K-9 unit. The flight was delayed about three hours, and the suspect is due to appear in court on Monday.
The case is one of several recent incidents in which a stowaway successfully boarded a flight in the United States. In February, Svetlana Dali bypassed security at Newark Liberty International, snuck onto a United flight and flew to Milan, Italy, where she was later detained by authorities.
That was not the first such episode involving Dali. In November 2024, she blended in with a crowd at Newark Liberty International and boarded a Delta flight to Paris without a ticket, passport or travel visa. Taken together, the cases have sharpened scrutiny of how stowaways are slipping through layers of airport security.