Woman sneaks through San Jose security, onto LA-bound plane
SAN JOSE, Calif. (KGO) -- She's done it again... the woman caught trying to sneak onto planes at San Francisco International Airport half a dozen times has breached security at another Bay Area airport and, this time, it worked.
Marilyn Hartman got through a security checkpoint at Mineta San Jose International Airport without a ticket, boarded a plane and actually flew to Los Angeles.
This woman should have been recognized. Her face was splashed all over the news earlier this year after she was arrested for sneaking past a TSA check point at SFO. A judge ordered her to undergo psychiatric treatment and stay away from the airport, but she tried it again.
This time, the 62-year-old woman took flight and made it to L.A. Southwest Airlines conducted a head count after the plane was in the air and she was arrested when the plane touched down.
Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Pleasanton said, "She should never have gotten on that plane."
Swalwell says Mineta San Jose Airport security told him she bypassed a document checker while he was examining a family's boarding passes.
Swalwell says she "then kind of pulled the same stunt at the gate before getting on the plane, found a family and then went around."
Swalwell is also on the Homeland Security Subcommittee on Transportation Security.
He says, "Certainly, two incidents of un-ticketed passengers getting on a plane in San Jose within the last four months is concerning."
Swalwell called for improved perimeter security after a 15-year-old boy climbed a fence at Mineta San Jose and survived a flight to Hawaii in the wheel well of a plane. Swalwell says the TSA agents need more training.
San Jose airport spokesperson Rosemary Barnes says, "The passenger was screened by TSA for any prohibited items. It's real important to point that out and public safety was not compromised in any way."
TSA says it's already making adjustments. Meanwhile, Swalwell says he'll be working in Washington to make sure this doesn't happen again.
Hartman has tried to get pass airport security six times before at SFO. On Feb. 15, she made it on to a plane bound for Hawaii. Fortunately, she was caught before that plane took off. Three days later, she tried again, but was caught.
Then again on Feb. 20 she was caught, but that time she was ordered to stay away from the airport unless she had a ticket, but that didn't stop her. She was also arrested on March 18, March 26, and April 7.
