Woman arrested for alleged trespassing for second time in 3 days at Seattle airport
- A woman was arrested twice in one week at the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport.
- The first incident involved the woman boarding a Delta Air Lines flight to Honolulu without a ticket, causing a two-hour delay.
- Days later, she was arrested again for trespassing after allegedly attempting to pick up her sister without a ticket or accurate flight information.
A woman was arrested for the second time in a week at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, days after allegedly boarding a Delta Air Lines flight without a ticket.
The Port of Seattle Police Department (POSPD) was dispatched on Friday to help the Transportation Security Administration with a person “considered not to have official airport business,” an airport spokesperson told Paste BN in an emailed statement. A police report identified her as Shemaiah Small, 33.
“TSA attempted to make first contact with the individual near Checkpoint 3 and called in POSPD for support,” the spokesperson's statement said. Police determined she did not have airport business and arrested her for trespassing.
“The individual did not pass through any of the checkpoints,” the statement continued. Small told law enforcement she was there to pick up her sister, according to a police report but provided a "made up" airline and a phone number for her sister that did not work.
Small could not be reached for comment on the allegations at the phone number listed.
The incident came days after she allegedly boarded a Delta Air Lines flight to Honolulu, Hawaii, without a boarding pass on Dec. 24.
An airline spokesperson confirmed that while the plane was taxiing, an unticketed passenger was discovered, and the aircraft returned to the gate. The flyer was removed, and TSA rescreened customers, among other safety checks.
The incident resulted in a 2-hour-and-15-minute delay.
“As there are no matters more important than safety and security, Delta people followed procedures to have an unticketed passenger removed from the flight and then apprehended,” the airline told Paste BN in an emailed statement. “We apologize to our customers for the delay in their travels and thank them for their patience and cooperation.” An investigation is ongoing.
When met by law enforcement after deplaning, Small allegedly gave a false name and date of birth, according to a separate police report. She said she lived in San Francisco and was visiting her boyfriend in Seattle and that he had bought plane tickets for them and walked her through the airport.
However, when police tried to reach him by phone, he said he was not the person whose name she had provided and did not know someone by the false name she had allegedly given for herself, the report said.
Small was arrested in that instance for trespassing and making false statements, the airport spokesperson said.
A TSA spokesperson added that the passenger “bypassed the identity verification and boarding status stations” but went through standard screening and had no prohibited items.
“TSA takes any incidents that occur at any of our checkpoints nationwide seriously,” they told Paste BN in an emailed statement. “TSA will independently review the circumstances of this incident at our travel document checker station at Seattle/Tacoma International.”
The incident is not the only one of its kind in recent months. A Delta flight from New York City to Paris landed with a stowaway in November.
(This story was updated to add new information.)
Nathan Diller is a consumer travel reporter for Paste BN based in Nashville. You can reach him at ndiller@usatoday.com.