Repeat airline stowaway arrested again at Phoenix airport

A 62-year-old woman who has been arrested multiple times for attempting to stow away on a flights was apprehended again on Tuesday after tryng to sneak into the Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport, the San Jose Mercury-News reports. 

The woman, Marilyn Jean Hartman, was arrested in the beginning of August after successfully sneaking onto a flight from San Jose, Calif., to Los Angeles. 

She was arrested a second time days later after attempting to return to the Los Angeles airport without a plane ticket and charged with violating the probation she was sentenced to after the earlier incident.

{mosads}Hartman was arrested again in Phoenix on Tuesday and is now facing trespassing charges, according to the report

The paper said Phoenix officials are also calling for Hartman to undergo a mental health evaluation after her repeated arrests. 

Hartman’s successful attempt to board a flight without paying raised questions about airport security, especially at San Jose’s facility, which also had a 15-year-old boy sneak onto a flight earlier this year. 

“Passenger safety in the sky relies upon effective security on the ground,” Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.), who represents the area around the San Jose airport, said in a statement after Hartman’s first arrest.  

“That means only a screened and ticketed passenger should ever be able to board an airplane,” he continued.   

Swalwell said the incident involving Hartman “was an apparent failure by both airport security and the airline of protecting passengers from a potential threat to their safety.  

“Fortunately, this ticketless passenger was harmless,” he said. “However, we may not be as lucky next time and must do everything possible to protect the traveling public.”

TSA officials defended its San Jose employees’ treatment of Hartman during her initial stowaway attempt, even though she was successfully able to board a flight to Los Angeles without paying. 

“The individual was screened along with all other passengers to ensure that she was not a security threat to the aircraft,” the agency said in a statement that was provided at the time to The Hill.

However, the agency said it has made changes to the layout of its San Jose checkpoint after the incident. 

“Following an initial review by TSA at San Jose International Airport, the agency has initiated minor modifications to the layout of the document checking area to prevent another incident like this one,” the TSA said.