TSA has reviewed JFK airport video as they await return of stowaway from Paris

Authorities in the United States have reviewed airport security footage as they continue to investigate how a woman sneaked on board a Delta Air Lines flight from New York to Paris without a ticket last Tuesday –– one of the busiest travel days of the year. Inspectors from the TSA are preparing a civil case against the stowaway after reviewing airport security video from inside John F. Kennedy International Airport, agency spokesperson Alexa Lopez told CNN. The stowaway initially slipped past facial recognition ID scanners at the TSA checkpoint undetected, the TSA said, though she did go through baggage screening where officers found two bottles of water. “The TSA will open civil cases against passengers when there’s evidence that procedures may have been violated,” Lopez said. The TSA cannot bring criminal charges, though it can refer them to the Justice Department. A Paris airport official identified the female stowaway as a 57-year-old Russian national. The passenger – whom French officials are trying to return to the US – remains in custody in France. She was scheduled to take a return flight to the United States Saturday afternoon but French authorities had to remove her from the aircraft after she started screaming, according to the Paris airport official. “The pilot refused to take her because she was too unruly,” the official told CNN Monday. French border police brought the passenger back to a waiting zone at Charles de Gaulle Airport for people awaiting deportation. She can be held in the zone, known as ZAPI, for up to 20 days. French authorities want her to return to the United States of her own volition. But failing that, they will force her to go back with an escort, in formal custody. Since arriving in Paris, she has been evaluated by a doctor.<br/>