SAN FRANCISCO (AP) – A woman who took a Southwest Airlines flight from San Jose to Los Angeles without a ticket tried at least three times that day to breach airport security before she managed to board the plane, federal law enforcement officials said Wednesday.
It was the San Jose airport’s second security breach in recent months, after a teenage Somali immigrant stowed away in the wheel well of an April flight from there to Hawaii.
Marilyn Jean Hartman bypassed an agent who was screening boarding passes Monday at Mineta San Jose International Airport by sneaking through with a family, said the law enforcement officials, who would speak only on condition of anonymity because the security breach is being investigated.
Hartman then went through the electronic screening process before entering an airport terminal. Authorities say she made it through screening because she had no prohibited items on her or in her purse.
Hartman, 62, then managed to board Southwest Airlines Flight 3785 to Los Angeles International Airport and was discovered once the plane landed, the officials said.