California woman who stowed away on flight arrested at airport, again

USPA News - A California woman, who was arrested this week afters she managed to fly from San Jose to Los Angeles without a ticket, was arrested again on Thursday after she was observed "scouting" terminals at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX), officials said. Marilyn Jean Hartman, 62, was taken into custody near Terminal 7 at approximately 11:15 a.m. local time on Thursday, said Sergeant Belinda Nettles, a spokeswoman for Los Angeles Airport Police.

The woman was transported to the Los Angeles Police Department Pacific Division Jail for pre-booking procedures for allegedly violating her terms of probation. "As the person ultimately responsible for the safety and security of employees and passengers at LAX, my experience led me to believe Hartman was likely to return to LAX," Airport Police Chief Patrick Gannon said. "When we knew she was going to be released from custody, we were prepared. We worked closely with the Transportation Security Administration and our other airport partners to distribute flyers with her picture on it. She was seen wandering through several terminals today, in what appeared to be a scouting mission." Police say Hartman was first seen boarding a FlyAway bus from Los Angeles Union Station and arrived at LAX at about 10:20 a.m. The woman was then observed by Airport Police officers as she entered Terminal 2, after which Hartman spent nearly an hour at the airport, apparently "scouting" passenger terminals until she was taken into custody. "Airport Police officers did not observe Hartman attempting to purchase an airline ticket and she did not have a ticket or boarding pass in her possession when arrested," Nettles said. Hartman made international news this week after it emerged she managed to fly from Mineta San Jose International Airport to Los Angeles International Airport without a ticket. She was arrested at 9:25 p.m. on Monday when officers responded to Terminal 1 and were told by an airline agent that Hartman arrived on a Southwest Airlines flight from San Jose but was not a ticketed passenger. Hartman pled no contest to a misdemeanor charge of being a stowaway during a court appearance on Wednesday, after which she was ordered by the court to stay away from Los Angeles International Airport unless she had a valid boarding pass to fly. She was also placed on a 24-month summary probation. The San Francisco resident has been arrested following similar incidents in the past. She was arrested at San Francisco International Airport in March after allegedly attempting to board flights to Hawaii even though she had no valid boarding pass. She was released and ordered to stay away from the airport unless ticketed to fly, but Hartman returned to the airport less than two weeks later and was arrested a second time. This week`s incident in which Hartman successfully flew to Los Angeles immediately raised security concerns, especially since the San Jose airport also failed to catch a stowaway earlier this year. In the earlier incident, which happened in April, a teenage boy who ran away from home was able to hop over a fence at Mineta San Jose International Airport and managed to get onto a plane. He snuck into the landing gear well of a Boeing 767 aircraft, which took him on a five-hour flight to Hawaii. The 16-year-old boy escaped without serious injuries, despite the extreme cold and lack of oxygen which knocked him unconscious. Research by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) indicates that, from 1947 through 2014, including the incidents this year, there have been at least 95 flights worldwide involving 106 people who stowed away on board an aircraft. Of those 106 people, 80 of them - more than three-quarters - were killed.