Stowaway Found on International Flight After Passing Through Security, Evading Discovery in Plane Bathrooms

As air travel surged on Nov. 26, the Tuesday before Thanksgiving, a woman snuck onto a flight from New York City to Paris — somehow getting through airport security and boarding the plane without a boarding pass or passport.

A flight attendant ultimately discovered the stowaway, whose identity has not been publicized, while the Nov. 26 flight from John F. Kennedy International Airport to Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport was midair. She was found after making frequent, long visits to the plane’s bathrooms, sources close to the situation told CNN and CBS News.

“Apparently, she hid in a lavatory all the way at the rear of the aircraft when we departed JFK,” Rob Jackson, a passenger on the nearly full Delta Flight 264, told CNN.

Before the woman — a U.S. green card holder with a Russian passport — boarded the flight, she bypassed both the document check podium and a gate agent, a TSA spokesperson told ABC News. It is currently unclear how she was able to do so.

The woman was, however, fully screened at a security checkpoint at JFK, which means she did not have any prohibited items in her possession or otherwise pose a security risk, the spokesperson said.

Passengers on the Delta flight were not alerted about the stowaway situation until the plane landed in Paris, Jackson told CNN. After it touched down, she was taken into custody in the French capital.

"The first announcement to passengers that there was a problem was when we parked at the gate,” he told the outlet, “and they instructed us all to remain seated because French police were going to board the aircraft to deal with ‘a serious security issue.’ ”

The traveler also captured a video of one of the announcements, which was delivered to passengers on the Boeing 767-400ER — one of the largest aircrafts in Delta's fleet.

“Folks, this is the captain, we are just waiting for the police to come on board,” the captain said in Jackson's clip, per CNN. “They may be here now and they directed us to keep everyone on the airplane until we sort out the extra passenger that’s on the plane.”

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On Thursday, Nov. 28, a spokesperson for Delta told PEOPLE in a statement that “nothing is of greater importance than matters of safety and security.”

“That’s why Delta is conducting an exhaustive investigation of what may have occurred and will work collaboratively with other aviation stakeholders and law enforcement to that end,” the statement concluded.

The airline also said it will “decline further comment at this time given ongoing investigations.”

TSA did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment. In a statement provided to CBS News, however, a spokesperson for the agency said that it “takes any incidents that occur at any of our checkpoints nationwide seriously.”

"TSA will independently review the circumstances of this incident at our travel document checker station at JFK,” the spokesperson said.

The FBI is also aware of the incident, according to ABC News.