Nigerian man sneaks on full United flight in California with fake boarding pass, forces evac
A 25-year-old man faces a felony charge after authorities say he managed to bypass airport gate agents and board a full United Airlines flight to Los Angeles using a fake boarding pass, triggering an explosives sweep that forced every passenger off the aircraft.
Abdulrahman Oriyomi, who is from Nigeria, was arrested Friday morning and charged with felony impairing or interrupting the operation of a critical infrastructure facility. The charges stem from an incident last month at Houston’s George Bush Intercontinental Airport.
Court records indicate the situation began at the Terminal C security checkpoint, where investigators noted Oriyomi was constantly staring at his phone and delaying speaking to a TSA agent. After experiencing difficulties with his boarding pass, he was moved to a separate booth to have his photo taken. He successfully cleared the checkpoint and was permitted to walk through the airport.
Oriyomi initially attempted to board a Los Angeles-bound flight at gate E16 around 7:10 a.m. When his fake boarding pass failed to scan, he allegedly entered into a disagreement with a United Airlines employee and was turned away.
According to investigators, Oriyomi spent the next hour pacing the area before joining the boarding line for a different flight to Los Angeles. Gate agents were busy assisting other passengers, allowing Oriyomi to walk past the desk entirely unnoticed and down the jetway.
“I think this is a pretty significant breach, not just because of the fact that he ended up on the plane; it’s the multiple layers and failures to even get on the plane,” Michael Matranga, a former Secret Service agent, stated. “They’re not paying attention to his diversionary tactics. They’re distracted, they’re not situationally aware.”
Matranga noted that the situation points to a need for administrative action. “At a very minimum, those agents who were directly involved and probably that whole cadre of agents at the airport need to be retrained on policy and consistency in policy,” he added.
Once inside United flight 469, Oriyomi took an aisle seat. A passenger sitting next to him later told investigators that Oriyomi seemed unsure if the seat was actually his. When Oriyomi got up to use the restroom, another passenger occupied the seat.
Because the flight was completely full, Oriyomi moved to a bathroom at the back of the plane to hide. United Airlines records later revealed that Oriyomi had a prior reservation for the flight, but it was canceled due to nonpayment.
When a flight attendant knocked on the bathroom door to tell him to take a seat for takeoff, Oriyomi emerged and asked to sit in the crew jump seats, introducing himself as “Mr. Lopez.” Flight attendants checked the manifest, found no passenger by that name, and alerted the Houston Police Department.
The security protocol required all passengers to exit the plane so law enforcement could conduct a thorough sweep for explosives.
While police questioned Oriyomi that day and issued a trespass warning, formal charges were not filed until June 1, leading to his arrest on Friday.
United Airlines declined to comment on the security lapse. The Houston Police Department and the TSA did not immediately respond to requests for comment regarding the investigation.
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