Man to plead guilty in NYC plane stowaway charge

A man accused of using an expired boarding pass with someone else’s name to get on a flight from New York City to Los Angeles has agreed to plead guilty to a stowaway charge and pay $942 for the cross-country flight.

Olajide Oluwaseun Noibi, 24, will enter his plea in federal court to the felony count on Tuesday, said Thom Mrozek, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Los Angeles.

Noibi faces up to 5 years in prison when he is sentenced.

Prosecutors agreed to drop a second felony charge that Noibi tried to enter a secure area of an airport by fraud or false pretense.

He could have faced up to 15 years in prison if convicted of that and the stowaway charge.

In his plea agreement, Noibi admitted that he boarded a Virgin America flight at Kennedy Airport on June 24 with someone else’s expired boarding pass.

The airline crew didn’t realize until mid-flight that an extra passenger was on board in a premium seat that was supposed to be empty.

Noibi was arrested several days later at Los Angeles International Airport when he tried to board a Delta flight to Atlanta with an expired boarding pass.

His case sparked security concerns after officials determined that he got past airport screenings while using expired boarding passes in someone else’s name and his student card for identification.

According to the agreement, prosecutors did not find that terrorism charges applied to this case.

Noibi has dual citizenship in the United States and Nigeria, and court documents showed he didn’t appear to have a permanent residence.