A MAN managed to pass through a security checkpoint and check in for a flight using another person’s boarding pass inadvertently left behind at an automated ticketing kiosk, the US Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has confirmed.
The TSA did not disclose any information about the November 5 security breach at Salt Lake City International Airport until late last week, just before the start of the busy holiday travel weekend, ABC News reported.
The 61-year-old registered sex offender, identified as Michael Salata, was eventually taken into custody after Southwest Airlines agents alerted authorities that the ticket and its replacement had been presented by two different passengers.
Salata was reportedly waiting for the flight in a nearby boarding area when police caught up with him. The ticket he was attempting to use was issued in the name of a woman who used a mobile device to replace her missing boarding pass.
“He tried to make it seem like it was a mistake, that the boarding pass printed incorrectly, or that he grabbed the wrong boarding pass,” SLC Airport Police Chief Craig Vargo told the Deseret News.
TSA spokesperson Lori Dankers said that while checkpoint workers failed to match Salata to the boarding pass he was supposedly travelling under, he was still subjected to the same security screening as any other passenger.
“There are multiple layers of security in place,” she insisted in a statement to the newspaper.
Salata, who police say had a small amount of marijuana with him when he was arrested, was charged with drug possession as well as a felony count of fraudulent handling of a legal document.
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