Stowaway discovered on board flight from New York to Paris
Robert Alexander/Getty Images
(NEW YORK) — Amid the Thanksgiving travel rush, a stowaway was discovered Tuesday night onboard a Delta Air Lines flight out of JFK Airport in New York City headed to Paris.
Authorities said the stowaway was discovered on board Delta Flight 264 from JFK to Paris and removed after the plane landed at Charles de Gaulle Airport.
The person who boarded the flight bypassed the document check podium and a gate agent, but was fully screened at a security checkpoint at JFK, a TSA spokesperson told ABC News. That means they weren’t carrying any prohibited items and did not pose a security risk, TSA said.
It’s unclear how the person got around the document check podium.
The FBI is aware of the incident.
No other details about the person who boarded the flight have been made public.
A representative for Delta said the airline is “conducting an exhaustive investigation of what may have occurred and will work collaboratively with other aviation stakeholders and law enforcement to that end.”
A video taken by another passenger on board the flight shows the flight attendants walking down the aisle as the pilot’s voice on the intercom says, “We are just waiting for the police to come on board … They directed us to keep everyone on the plane until they sort out the extra passenger.”
A cluster of broken pieces of wood from destroyed houses rest along a damaged bridge in Lake Lure, North Carolina, Oct. 2, 2024, after the passage of Hurricane Helene. (Allison Joyce/AFP via Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — At least 1,000 National Guard troops are heading into the most hard-hit areas in western North Carolina on Thursday in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene as the death toll from the storm approaches 200 with hundreds of people still unaccounted for.
“The nation has your back. We’re not leaving ‘til you’re back on your feet completely,” President Joe Biden said on Wednesday after surveying the mass destruction from the storm in North and South Carolina.
Helene is now the deadliest mainland hurricane to strike the United States since Katrina in 2005 which claimed the lives of nearly 1,400 people.
More than a million people still don’t have power and a nearly completely dark strip marks the path of Helene through the Southeast as the crisis over getting access to drinkable water is growing.
Vice President Kamala Harris met with local authorities and grieving families in Augusta, Georgia, on Wednesday.
“It is particularly devastating in terms of the loss of life that this community has experienced, the loss of normalcy,” Harris said.
Elsewhere, new video captured the moment a landslide hit a house in Newland, North Carolina, as Helene trampled the Southeast.
In Fairview, Connecticut, Philip Morgan showed ABC News the system of ropes he has had to create to rappel the terrain since the bridge to his neighborhood was wiped out.
Morgan’s brother is on a ventilator and in dire need of supplies as Philip Morgan says it is only a matter of time before his brother will need to be moved.
“[My biggest fear is] something happening to him and not being able to get out of here fast enough,” Morgan told ABC News.
Meanwhile, nearby at Mission Hospital in Asheville, North Carolina, 400 nurses arrived in buses from across the country — even as far as Alaska — all to lend a helping hand in the aftermath of the sheer destruction of the storm.
“They showed up with a smile on their face. Eager to help, eager just to give us a little bit of reprieve,” said Matt Alligood, a resident nurse at Mission Hospital. “So, it’s … it’s been amazing.”
(NEW YORK) — Former Abercrombie & Fitch CEO Mike Jeffries and two others were arrested Tuesday as part of a criminal sex trafficking investigation by the FBI and federal prosecutors in Brooklyn.
Jeffries, his partner Matt Smith and a third man, Jim Jacobson, are accused of operating an international sex trafficking and prostitution business that recruited young men for parties in the U.S. and abroad, according to an indictment.
The former retail executive and Smith relied on their vast financial resources, Jeffries’ power as the CEO of Abercrombie, and numerous people, including Jacobson and a network of employees, contractors and security professionals, to run a business “that was dedicated to fulfilling their sexual desires and ensuring that their international sex trafficking and prostitution business was kept secret,” the indictment alleges.
Federal prosecutors said the trio paid dozens of men to travel around the world to engage in sex acts. The indictment mentions 15 alleged victims, identified as John Does #1-15. Jeffries allegedly recruited, hired and paid a slate of household staff to “facilitate and supervise the Sex Events.”
Jacobson traveled throughout the United States and internationally to recruit and interview men for the so-called sex events. During “tryouts” of potential candidates, Jacobson required that the candidates first engage in sex acts with him, according to prosecutors.
The indictment said many of the men were coerced, led to believe that attending the events would yield modeling opportunities with Abercrombie or otherwise benefit their careers, or, in the alternative, that not complying with requests for certain acts during the sex events could harm their careers.
The defendants are charged with sex trafficking and interstate prostitution. They are expected to make appearances in the jurisdictions where the men were arrested in Florida and Wisconsin before they’re brought to Central Islip in Long Island, New York, at a later date for arraignment.
“We will respond in detail to the allegations after the Indictment is unsealed, and when appropriate, but plan to do so in the courthouse – not the media,” Brian Bieber, an attorney for Jeffries, told ABC News on Tuesday.
Attorneys for the other two defendants did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Abercrombie & Fitch declined ABC News’ request for comment.
Federal prosecutors had acknowledged the investigation in January after alleged victims filed a civil lawsuit a year ago.
Jeffries, who transformed Abercrombie from a traditional Ohio outfitter into a powerhouse teen fashion brand, has been accused in civil lawsuits of exploiting young men for sex at parties he hosted at his Hamptons estate in New York, London, Venice and elsewhere with his partner, Smith.
One of the plaintiffs, David Bradberry, a former crewman on the reality series “Below Deck,” said Jeffries made Abercrombie successful by the “oversexualization of young men.”
His lawsuit accused Jeffries, Smith, Jacobson and Abercrombie itself of luring attractive young men under the guise of making them an Abercrombie model and then forcing them to take drugs and perform sex acts.
The plaintiff’s attorney, Brad Edwards of Edwards Henderson, told ABC News in a statement: “As we laid out in our lawsuit, this was an Abercrombie run, sex trafficking organization that permeated throughout the company and allowed the three individuals arrested today to victimize dozens and dozens of young, aspiring male models.”
(WILMINGTON, Del.) — The federal judge who oversaw Hunter Biden’s conviction on gun charges in Delaware has again agreed to delay his sentencing.
At the request of prosecutors, Hunter Biden’s sentencing in Delaware will be pushed back one week, from Dec. 4 to Dec. 12, U.S. District Judge Maryellen Noreika ordered on Thursday.
Prosecutors in special counsel David Weiss’ office asked for the delay due to a conflict with their trial in the case against Alexander Smirnov, the FBI confidential source who is facing felony false statement and obstruction charges after authorities say he provided derogatory information about Hunter Biden and his father, President Joe Biden.
That trial is scheduled to begin Dec. 3.
Judge Noreika previously pushed back Hunter Biden’s Delaware sentencing date from Nov. 13 to Dec. 4, to allow Hunter Biden more time for his attorneys to gather materials for his sentencing memorandum.
Hunter Biden was found guilty in June on three felony counts related to his purchase of a firearm in 2018 while allegedly addicted to drugs.
Earlier this month, in a separate case, he pleaded guilty to nine federal tax-related charges in Los Angeles, where he is scheduled to be sentenced on Dec. 16.
