LAX Stowaway Changes Plea To Guilty, Faces 5 Years In Federal Prison
This Wednesday, Aug. 8, 2007 photo provided by Virgin America shows a Virgin America plane arriving from New York at the San Francisco International Airport. A man accused of using an expired boarding pass with someone else's name to get on a flight from New York to Los Angeles has agreed to plead guilty to a stowaway charge and pay $942 for the cross-country flight aboard Virgin America. Olajide Oluwaseun Noibi, 24, will enter his plea in federal court to the felony count Tuesday, Aug. 9, 2011 said Thom Mrozek, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's office. (AP Photo/Virgin America, John Decker)
Olajide Oluwaseun Noibi, a 24-year-old Nigerian American man arrested for using expired boarding passes in other people's names, plead guilty to a federal charge of being a stowaway, according to L.A. Now. Noibi previously plead not guilty to the charges in Los Angeles court on July 18.
Noibi has admitted to successfully sneaking aboard a Virgin America flight from New York to Los Angeles on June 24. He was arrested while attempting to board a Delta flight from LAX to Atlanta a few days after his Virgin America victory.
The Virgin America incident has sparked much debate over how Noibi maneuvered through layers of security then eluded officials once the discovery was made that he was a stowaway. Aviation safety experts note that there were multiple breakdowns in security procedures.
*Transportation Security Administration and airline officials should have noticed the ticket was expired and not in Noibi's name when he boarded at New York's John F. Kennedy Airport.*He was allowed on board by showing his expired university ID card, even though college identification cards are not on the TSA's list of valid IDs and federal transportation sources said that it alone should not have been accepted.
*After Virgin America discovered that Noibi had boarded the plane without buying a ticket, federal authorities allowed him to leave LAX after the plane landed when he had clearly violated laws.
Slated to enter his plea in U.S. District Court on Tuesday, Noibi faces a sentence of up to five years in federal prison. Additionally, he must pay $942 in restitution to Virgin America.
