A 25-year-old Nigerian man has been arrested and charged with a felony after he allegedly used a fake boarding pass to slip through security and board a United Airlines flight at one of the busiest airports in the United States.
The fake boarding pass incident Houston’s George Bush Intercontinental Airport unfolded on 18 May 2026 and triggered a three-hour flight delay, a bomb sweep, and responses from multiple federal and local agencies.
Abdulrahman Oluwatumike Oriyomi, a resident of Houston, was taken into custody on 6 June. He faces a felony charge of impairing or interrupting the operation of a critical infrastructure facility, filed in Harris County, Texas.
Inside Terminal C
Court records show Oriyomi arrived at Bush Airport early on the morning of 18 May and made his way to the Terminal C security checkpoint, where investigators noted he was constantly staring at his phone and delaying before speaking to a TSA agent.
He had apparent difficulty with his boarding pass and was then escorted to a separate TSA booth, where his picture was taken before he was cleared through security.
What investigators would later confirm as a fake boarding pass Houston agents had failed to flag in full contained a forged QR code and was missing key information, according to Click2Houston, which reviewed the court records.
Once past the checkpoint, surveillance footage showed Oriyomi speaking with United Airlines employees multiple times and attempting to board at least one flight, only to be turned away each time his boarding pass failed to scan at the gate.
Walking past distracted agents
Rather than leave the airport, Oriyomi spent roughly an hour in the terminal before finding a second opportunity. A Houston Police Department officer noted in court documents that as Oriyomi approached a departure gate, he “intentionally waits for the United employees to be preoccupied with other passengers” before walking past them and down the jetway onto United Airlines Flight 469, bound for Los Angeles.
This second attempt to use the fake boarding pass at Houston’s gate went undetected by staff at the time.
Once on board, Oriyomi tried to sit in an empty aisle seat. A woman seated nearby told investigators he appeared unsure whether it was his seat, stood back up, and went to the restroom. When he returned about 15 minutes later, other passengers were seated there.
With the flight full, he allegedly attempted to conceal himself by repeatedly retreating to the aircraft bathroom. A concerned passenger alerted flight attendants that someone remained inside the restroom while the plane was already taxiing.
When a flight attendant asked for his name, he allegedly gave a false identity, telling crew his name was “Mr Lopez.” Staff checked the passenger manifest and found no one by that name.
Bomb sweep and three-hour delay
All passengers were required to deplane and the aircraft was swept for explosives by the Houston Police Department’s Explosive Detection K-9 Unit. The fake boarding pass case in Houston highlights how a single airport security breach can rapidly escalate into emergency protocols involving bomb detection units and full passenger evacuation. Flight 469 was delayed by approximately three hours as a result.
Officers then spoke with Oriyomi, who provided his real name. A United customer service manager told police she had located a reservation under his name, but that it had been cancelled by the airline due to non-payment.
After realising he was not going to be immediately detained, Oriyomi began filming airport staff and law enforcement, causing a disturbance before leaving the airport. Formal charges were not filed until 1 June.
“Multiple layers of failure”
The fake boarding pass case in Houston has drawn sharp criticism from aviation security experts. Michael Matranga, a former Secret Service agent, told Houston television station KTRK that the breach exposed failures at every checkpoint.
“I think this is a pretty significant breach, not just because of the fact that he ended up on the plane. It’s the multiple layers and failures to even get on the plane,” Matranga said. He called for retraining of the agents involved and said staff had failed to notice what he described as diversionary tactics. “They’re distracted, they’re not situationally aware,” he added.
Prosecutors, in a motion reviewed by Fox News Digital, noted the incident “delayed a flight for three hours with a full plane” and triggered responses from the Houston Police Department, the FBI, Houston Airports, and the TSA. They subsequently sought a $25,000 bond for Oriyomi.
No prior criminal record for him has been disclosed in any court filing or law enforcement statement. His immigration status has not been confirmed in any public document.
Agencies silent on security gaps
Prosecutors sought bond conditions including surrender of Oriyomi’s travel documents, a ban from airports, and possible electronic monitoring.
Neither the TSA nor United Airlines issued any public statement on how the fake boarding pass Houston security failure occurred across multiple layers of screening. Houston Airports noted that all security screening at the facility is implemented by federal authorities, not airport management. The fake boarding pass incident in Houston continues to raise questions about multi-layer airport security failures.
Oriyomi has not yet stood trial and is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty in a court of law.
