Man boards international flight with a cancelled ticket, sparks evacuation with message ‘send the US marshals’

Qais Ahmad Tillawi, a Jordanian national, has created a security nightmare right now he managed to bypass security and board an international flight in Phoenix, Arizona, despite having a completely canceled ticket. As a result of his escalating bizarre behaviour, the entire Air France flight heading to Paris had to be evacuated.

The incident started when Tillawi, an Arizona State University dropout, cleared TSA and somehow got onto the international aircraft, which would be the second security breach recently. According to the New York Post report, the FBI affidavit of the situation said that he had bought his flight ticket less than two hours before takeoff, but it was canceled almost immediately because he used an “unauthorized credit card.”

Tillawi was able to get a boarding pass before the cancellation went through, but that pass was later tagged and should have been caught at the gate. However, despite Tillawi refusing to show his passport to the gate staff, who later admitted she only checked one of the many passenger lists she had access to, missing the alert on his boarding pass and allowed him onto the flight. 

Avoiding a confrontation almost caused a lot of damage

On the plane, Tillawi refused to take his assigned seat and alarmed the other passengers by pacing the aircraft. When the captain finally ordered him to deboard, Tillawi typed out a message on his phone demanding, “Send the USA marshals,” rather than speaking.

Phoenix police were then scrambled to the scene and evacuated the entire flight. Tillawi eventually explained that he had refused to sit because his assigned seat felt “suspicious and wrong,” though he refused to elaborate on why. At least the passengers were deboarded in this tense situation, unlike a past incident where passengers had to call the police so that they could deboard.

This wasn’t Tillawi’s first incident involving mental health or suspicious airport activity. According to the affidavit, he had previously been committed to a mental hospital following an earlier airport arrest in Dubai. His brother confirmed that Tillawi, who speaks fluent English, had been struggling with psychosis after he was reportedly fired from his job at PricewaterhouseCoopers. He also struggled with addiction to marijuana, sleeping pills, and mushrooms. 

Tillawi’s strange actions started before he even got to Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport. He abandoned his rental car on the way and tossed two jackets into a trash can so that he could buy a new one in Paris. Upon arrest, the police discovered he had seven driver’s licenses, multiple passports, around 20 credit cards, fake employment ID badges, and over $1,000 in cash.

Tillawi was charged with interference with flight crew members, a federal felony, along with a misdemeanour charge for violating security requirements by entering a secure airport area.