One would think that the heightened security measures at airports  which have only grown tighter every year  however, recently security agents at the John F. Kennedy International Airport made a massive blunder that allowed a woman to stow away on a flight from New York City to Paris, France.

So how did this happen? According to members of the Transportation Security Administration, the woman  identified as Russian national Svetlana Dali  managed to bypass TSA by blending in with a flight crew and then, once she arrived at the gate, she positioned herself in the middle of a family who were traveling together.

It was stated that Dali managed to skip the line by pretending that she had already given the gate agent her ticket and passport. This is no excuse, Mary Schiavo, a CNN aviation analyst and former inspector general for the US Department of Transportation said. They are supposed to treat each person as a separate security threat. The TSA mantra is every passenger, every time  they are not supposed to treat groups any differently than solo  each person must be identified and have a ticket.

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Schiavo told CNN that every airport checkpoint is covered by security cameras and that Dali is obviously on that video skirting the TSA identification and ticketing check. According to the aviation expert, They already know how she did it and they need to fess up and close that loophole, Schiavo said.

According to the outlet, Delta stated that they are thoroughly addressing what they described as a deviation from standard procedures. Despite the statement, Delta did not go into specifics, but stated that its own security and its infrastructure is sound. The TSA has chalked the mishap as a byproduct of the busy holiday weekend.

Schiavo called the whole fiasco a “wake-up call” for the airline industry. Its a really big deal and it leaves our vulnerabilities exposed to the world, she added. According to a CNN article, passengers learned of the stowaway when they touched down at Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris.

The outlet reported that the pilot instructed travelers to remain seated because French police were boarding to deal with a serious security issue.” Dali was apprehended by authorities and sent back to the U.S. on a Delta flight on Wednesday and was greeted by dozens of law enforcement officers.

Maybe this is one incredibly lucky thing that happened because the system is blinking red, Schiavo said in an interview. Everyone knows the threats are out there and the TSA just failed horribly, as did Delta Air Lines. So if people approach this properly, this could be the wake-up call that we need to keep flyers and the people over whose heads we fly safe.

It was also reported that the TSA is also conducting its own internal investigation. TSA Administrator David P. Pekoske reported that occasionally a very, very small number of people manage to skip the identity verification stage undetected and that they are looking to implement new ways of catching them.

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