This is the story of notorious serial stowaway who successfully sneaked on 30 flights with no ticket has shared the secrets of her deception.
Marilyn Hartman, 69, is convinced her unassuming but confident demeanor saw her waved through security and onto dozens of planes without a boarding pass.
She revealed this from jail at Cook County in Chicago. “I have never been able to board a plane by myself. I was always let through. I mean I was able to go through the security line without a boarding pass. ‘I got by them – this is the thing that is so crazy – by following someone.
They would be carrying like a blue bag. And the next thing I know, I get into the TSA line and TSA lets me through, and they think I’m with the guy with the blue bag.’
Her trick of looking as though she was with someone else helped her cross the world illegally from 2002 on wards.
Marilyn Hartman revealed that her first flight was from Chicago to Copenhagen, the capital city of Denmark. During the same year, she enjoyed another free trip to Paris, France. It is surprising that Marilyn was able to sneak into planes until August 2014 when she was caught flying from San Jose to Las Vegas and was arrested.
The judge let her off and after that she boarded another 8 flights without a ticket. She travelled around the USA and even sneaked on a plane to London in January 2018.
On her last flight, she boarded a London bound plane where she was supposed to pay $3,482 for a British Airways ticket.
She made it successfully and landed in Britain where she was arrested and charged. At that time, Marilyn was well known by the Transport Security Administration (TSA).
They could call each other on “Marilyn sighting” but still manage to evade security and board planes.
In October 2019 Marilyn’s globe trotting finally came to an end when she was arrested in Chicago’s O’Hare Airport. The stowaway who was already on probation after her London trip, was held in custody by Judge Peggy Chiampas on charges of probation violation, burglary and criminal trespassing.
Marilyn spent approximately 16 months at Cook Jail where she was diagnosed with bipolar disorder and she is being treated for that condition. She is currently on bail and on electronic tag and will be in court in the next few weeks.
Aviation security expert revealed how flawed security at the airport is even post 9/11. He further revealed that Marilyn’s success comes from her unassuming appearance and the simplicity of her plans.
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