TSA must have assumed he identified as a woman.
Via Deseret News:
A man stole a misplaced Southwest Airlines boarding pass, made it through airport security and got as far as the flight check-in gate, where the boarding pass was approved, before airport officials were alerted and confronted him in an incident earlier this month, airport police said.
Michael Salata, 61, was arrested Nov. 5 shortly after checking into Southwest Airlines Flight 1760 from Salt Lake City to Oakland, California.
Salata, of Salt Lake City, is being investigated on suspicion of fraudulent handling of a recordable writing, a third-degree felony, said Salt Lake Airport Police Chief Craig Vargo.
Salata allegedly snatched the boarding pass from a Southwest Airlines kiosk, where it had been printed and then accidentally left. He was confronted around 9 p.m. after the woman who had misplaced the pass checked into the flight using a replacement boarding pass uploaded to her phone, Vargo said. The woman was just a few passengers behind Salata in line to board the airplane, police said.
“He tried to make it seem like it was a mistake, that the boarding pass printed incorrectly or that he grabbed the wrong boarding pass, (something) to that effect,” Vargo said.
The chief didn’t know whether police detained Salata on the jetway leading to the plane or whether he had found a seat on the aircraft.
Salata, a registered sex offender in Utah, reportedly cleared security while showing the woman’s boarding pass. He had no items with him that would be cause for alarm, Vargo said.
“It wasn’t like he was able to get anything past the screening checkpoint that would have been a risk to anybody else,” he said.
Transportation Security Authority spokeswoman authority Lori Dankers didn’t say whether the TSA agent who cleared Salata was disciplined or whether he or she is still employed by the agency.