A missing teenager with Autism was found at an Orlando airport after she passed through a security checkpoint by using someone else’s boarding pass.
According to ABC News, 15-year-old Sade Subbs was reported missing to the Apopka Police Department on January 9 but was discovered the next day at Orlando International Airport after passing through a Transportation Safety Administration (TSA) checkpoint.
Since TSA officers don’t ask travelers under 18 years old to present identification, Subbs was screened when she passed through the checkpoint and permitted to walk into the terminal areas.
Eventually, a Southwest Airlines employee noticed the teenager wandering around a gate and asked if she needed help. When airport police officers arrived, they recognized the missing girl and asked how she got to the facility.
Subbs said she took several buses from Apopka so she could fly on an airplane and used a drink coupon to pass through TSA Precheck. Police contacted the teen’s family, who picked her up and said she was in “good health and spirits.”
“Although she presented someone else’s boarding pass, she was screened and the TSA screening procedures did assure she posed no threat to aviation,” a TSA spokesperson told ABC News. “This is an example where the many layers of security worked.”
TSA agents have missed the mark in the past when it comes to screening passengers, as a woman was able to get through security without a ticket in October. Not only did she successfully make it through the checkpoint, but she was also able to board a Delta Air Lines flight without the ticket before being removed.
