Newly released video shows a woman who snuck onto a flight from New York to Paris last week being removed from a returning flight back to the United States after she started screaming.
In the footage, the woman yells “Please help here!” and the “United States broke my heart.” The woman has only been identified by France’s border police as a Russian passenger.
Gary Treichler was on Flight 265 from Paris to New York on Saturday with his family and said the woman started getting louder and louder.
“Something triggered her to start being uncooperative,” he told NBC’s “TODAY” show.
After about 20 minutes, the woman started to calm down, according to Treichler. Four armed French police officers and an interpreter were brought onboard to assist.
“She was then escorted off the plane,” he said. “Our flight was probably two and a half to three hours late for takeoff.”
The woman was placed in French custody, a source told NBC News on Sunday.
The woman was refused entry to France after she boarded a Nov. 26 Delta flight without a boarding pass and after bypassing two “identity verification and boarding status stations,” a spokesperson for the Transportation Security Administration said. The flight was traveling from John F. Kennedy International Airport to Charles de Gaulle Airport.
She completed a full security screening, meaning she was not carrying any prohibited items and did not pose a security threat, the TSA said. She was removed from the plane by law enforcement when it landed in Paris.
A spokesperson for France’s border police said she was denied entry because she did not have a valid travel document or visa. She did have a valid U.S. residence permit.
The TSA said Monday that it opens a civil case against any passenger when there is evidence that its regulations were violated. TSA will meet the woman at John F. Kennedy International Airport when she returns to the U.S.
