Passengers without tickets board the Delta flight from Seattle to Honolulu on Christmas Eve

A passenger without a ticket was found on board one of Delta’s flights on Christmas Eve, airline officials said.

This is coming only weeks after a stowaway was caught on another Delta flight. The passenger in this week’s incident went through standard security screenings but bypassed the identity verification and boarding status stations and boarded a plane, an Airbus A321neo, at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, according to the Transportation Security Administration.

Although the flight was on Christmas Eve, investigators determined the unticketed passenger had passed through a security checkpoint a day earlier on Monday night, Port of Seattle Police said. The passenger “accessed the loading dock without a scanned ticket at the gate,” Port of Seattle Police said.

The ticketless passenger was found before Flight 487 took off for Honolulu, but while the plane was taxiing out onto the runway, the airline said.

According to police officials, the would-be stowaway got off the plane as it returned to the gate and was located by police in a terminal bathroom using video surveillance. The ticketless passenger was arrested for criminal trespass and booked into the South Correctional Entity jail in Des Moines, Wash., according to the Port of Seattle.

The person has not yet been publicly identified.

The flight was delayed 2 hours and 15 minutes while TSA did extra security checks, including re-screening customers. Police said the plane was swept by K9 dogs, in addition to areas of the terminal that the unoccupied passenger had access to.

The TSA is still investigating how the would-be stowaway managed to board the plane without presenting a boarding pass.

In the case last month involving a Delta flight from New York City to Paris, Svetlana Dali tried to get in line at the Transportation Security Administration checkpoint, but she was turned away because she could not show a boarding pass, according to a criminal complaint. She then snuck through a short time later after allegedly “entering through a special lane for airline staff masked by a large Air Europa flight crew”.

“Delta agents, who were busy assisting ticketed passengers on board, did not stop her or ask her to present a boarding pass before she boarded the flight,” according to the criminal complaint.

Dali was detained in Paris and flew back to New York on December 4. She was taken into custody and charged with obtaining transportation on an aircraft without consent or permission. Dali was later arrested in Buffalo, on a bus to Canada, after allegedly cutting off her ankle monitor.