Man Flies From JFK To LA With Fake ID, Expired Boarding Pass

The TSA, hard at work

While the Transportation Security Administration may or may not be making old ladies take off their Depends during screening, there's this: A Nigerian man managed to board a Los Angeles-bound flight at JFK Airport without a valid boarding pass or valid identification. Olajide Olwaseun Noibi used a fake ID and an expired boarding pass to get onto Virgin America Flight 415.

WCBS 2 reports, "The FBI says Noibi sat in the main cabin and when a flight attendant asked him to show his boarding pass, he produced the expired pass. Noibi was still allowed to get off the plane when it landed in Los Angeles." Great! And how did Noibi get the pass? ABC News explains:

On that pass was the name of a man with the initials M.D. After tracking down and interviewing him, the FBI learned that M.D. had lost his home-printed boarding pass from his back pocket, which had been folded into fourths, once he arrived at JFK via subway Friday. Once he discovered it missing, he obtained a new boarding pass from a ticket kiosk and boarded flight 413.

On flight 415 Saturday -- the day after M.D.'s flight had already taken off -- a similarly folded home-printed boarding pass with M.D.'s name on it was found on Noibi.

Noibi was arrested yesterday in Wednesday when he tried to board a Delta flight from LA to NYC under the same MO. Authorities found 10 other expired boarding passes. A federal agent wrote in his report, "Noibi [while at LAX] claimed he was able to go through passenger screening by obtaining a seat pass and displaying his University of Michigan identification and a police report that his passport had been stolen."

Contact the author of this article or email tips@gothamist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By Jen Chung in News on June 30, 2011 9:14 AM

Comments [rss]

blindmalice

'Are you shittin' me?' said the 95 year old forced to remove her soiled diaper.

Rocknrope

How is this even possible? Don't they scan barcodes for boarding passes now? Every flight I've been on in the last couple of years had scanning boarding passes.

Inkognita

Some reports claimed this Nigerian national obtained all his false boarding passes by pickpocketing them from their rightful owners. Is Noibi even in the US legally? Seems unlikely. And it's especially disturbing that he went through several layers of security. How many other scam artists like him are flying around the US?

ItchyGoiter

Yeah, I don't get this either. TSA scans it at the security line and then the airline crew scans it again upon boarding.

PhotoR

TSA doesn't scan them at JFK terminals (or at least didn't last time I flew a couple months back).

ANGRYGOD11

There is NO coordination between the boarding pass presented to TSA and the one presented to the airline's gate agents.
NONE.
Someday there might be, but NO system is currently in place.

ItchyGoiter

So sorry sir.. I will not make this mistake again.

ANGRYGOD11

I wanted to stress how unacceptable airport security is 10 years after 9/11. A piece of paper from someone's printer and a student ID nobody can verify is no way to do things in 2011.
We should be doing better than public gropings.

Len_Drexler

I don't think I have ever seen TSA scan a boarding pass. They are supposed to match the name on the ID to the name on the boarding pass. They should be checking that the date is correct but I can easily see them ignoring that. It's the airline's responsibility to verify that the boarding pass is legitimate. And they usually do a visual head count in the cabin before departure. Sounds like Virgin America was being sloppy. They should have realized they had an extra passenger before they even left the gate.

ItchyGoiter

Maybe I'm thinking of the barcode scanners for e-passes, and not paper.

pillow_case

And a University of Michigan ID... seriously?

J L

Wow! Shouldn't the flight attendant noticed it was the wrong flight number and wrong day? Shouldn't any of them? I agree with others the TSA is a laughstock. Of course, they are, if you look at them, the lowest pool of employees that one could hire. These are the people that are protecting our planes, our lives, our families. If we are going to continue have a TSA ...PAY THEM!!!! then you will get a finer quality worke, a better quality work product and less resistance from the public. Naturally the people at the top are probably quality the low-grade-haven't been to jail yet, can't really speak clear English and can't think past my next bowl of punzit has got to go.

Lastly, Maybe the gothamist could choose a more appropriate photo for this piece. Although I think its important to show what the TSA is actually doing (trust me if that gentlemen had his had where he does i would NOT be in the airport, it's misleading.

Curious to know how many men and women were "felt up" last weekend in New York and San Francisco airports with their annual Gay Pride celebrations in full force? Do they confiscate the numerous metal cockrings and body jewelry detected after they "pat down" the flyer? Or do they help themselves? I will go with the latter for $500 Alex.

N. Drew
Detective

ANGRYGOD11

Flight attendants don't check boarding passes, the gate agents do.Usually that means passing them through a scanner, but that means the airline's system is not coordinating info the way its supposed to.

Guest

"If we are going to continue have a TSA ...PAY THEM!!!"
Not true. You can pay McDonald's employees more, it doesn't mean their quality of service will improve.

Maks

It is necessary to dismiss employees who have committed such an airport.

schmeep

They have really good Barristers in Nigeria that should help make his bail with a good faith wire transfer to a Most Noble Prince.

PicoPhreako69

*snicker*
Yeah, either them or the various widows of the late General So-and-So who was the former President of [insert country here], also writing in good faith.....

sketto

This should be page one in the newspaper - the TSW is a laughingstock. It makes millions of people take off shoes and belts, yet it cannot even control who gets on the plane.

What an embarrassment. Total fucking charade.