On Saturday, October 5th, a woman boarded a Delta Airlines airplane at Orlando International Airport without a boarding pass or identification.  

Passenger Jenni Clemon was boarding her flight to Atlanta when she discovered someone in her seat. When asked to move, the intruder, identified as Sylvia Rictor, refused to leave the seat. When confronted by the flight attendants, she told them that she threw her boarding pass out before she got on the plane.  

Rictor had initially pretended to be in another family, sneaking through TSA checks and onto the plane. When asked to show identification, she showed the attendant a personal picture on her phone. “Ma’am, that is not a government ID. That’s a photo,” one of the staff members told her. Rictor told them it was “just as good”.  

She was eventually escorted off of the plane by Delta Airlines representatives, but was allowed to leave the airport without being arrested. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) was notified. A public affairs officer for the FBI in Tampa had no additional information regarding Rictor’s release.

Authorities are still investigating the intruder’s motive and means, but no further information has been released at this time.