Man Walks Free After Stealing Child’s Boarding Pass to Sneak Onto Delta Flight

A 27-year-old man who pleaded guilty to sneaking aboard a Delta Air Lines plane at the Salt Lake City airport and attempting to hide in a lavatory as a stowaway has walked free from court following his sentencing for a felony conviction on Tuesday.

Wicliff Yves Fleurizard, 27, of Leander, Texas, reached a plea deal with prosecutors a couple of months ago following the March 2024 incident in which he used a creative technique to steal a young child’s boarding pass to sneak aboard the plane.

“Mr. Fleurizard’s actions were not only disruptive to passengers, it also compromised the safety and security for all on board.”

Special Agent in Charge Mehtab Syed of the Salt Lake City FBI.

Fleurizard had faced the threat of being sent to prison for up to five years, plus a fine of $250,000, but on Tuesday, May 21, U.S. District Court Judge David Barlow sentenced him to time served, which was just six months imprisonment.

He has also been ordered to pay $5,000 in compensation and will be required three years of supervised release.

“Mr. Fleurizard’s actions were not only disruptive to passengers, it also compromised the safety and security for all on board,” commented Special Agent in Charge Mehtab Syed of the Salt Lake City FBI, following the sentencing hearing.

“The sentence holds him accountable for trespassing, theft, and fraud,” Syed added.

Buddy pass drama turned Fleurizard into a criminal

According to court documents, Fleurizard had been trying to fly back home to Florida using a so-called buddy pass from a friend who works for Southwest Airlines.

A buddy pass is a standby ticket that only allows you to fly if there are available seats on the plane at the time of boarding. Fleurizard attempted to use the buddy pass on several Southwest flights, but everyone was fully booked with no spare seats available.

In a desperate bid to get home, Fleurizard devised a plan to sneak aboard a Delta Air plane without a ticket.

Surveillance camera footage from the airport showed how Fleurizard moved around a crowd of passengers waiting to board Delta flight DL1683 to Austin, attempting to take photos of their boarding passes with his cell phone.

Fleurizard eventually managed to get a photo of a boarding pass belonging to a young girl on the flight and then joined the line-up to board the plane ahead of her. The photo of the boarding pass got him past the gate agents and onto the plane, although this is where his madcap plan started to unravel.

His plan had been to hide in a lavatory until the boarding process had finished and then take any open seat. Fleurizard boarded the plane and went straight to the restroom at the front of the plane and hid there until all the other passengers were onboard.

He then exited the lavatory and walked along the aisle, eyeing each row for a spare seat. Much to his despair, however, Fleurizard soon realized that this flight was also fully booked, and there weren’t any open seats.

After locking himself in a lavatory at the back of the plane for a short period, Fleurizard again started pacing the aisle before a flight attendant challenged him and discovered his name wasn’t on the flight manifest.

By this point, the plane was already taxiing for departure, so the pilots had to return to the gate, where Fleurizard was hauled off the plane by local cops.

Following the sentencing hearing, Salt Lake City Police Chief Brian Redd said that Fleurizard’s actions had put the safety of passengers and crew at risk.

“The security measures we have in place are to keep everyone safe and this reminds us that we must regularly work to strengthen those aviation security measures,” Redd continued.

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