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Marilyn Hartman (AP Photo/San Mateo County Sheriff's Office)
LOS ANGELES >> A woman who authorities say flew from San Jose to Los Angeles without a ticket was sentenced to jail Wednesday after admitting she violated her probation by returning to the LA airport.
Marilyn Jean Hartman, 62, was sentenced to 177 days in jail for going back to the Los Angeles International Airport last week and wandering through the terminals after a judge ordered her to stay away from the facility, said Frank Mateljan, spokesman for the LA city attorney’s office.
Hartman previously made repeated attempts to sneak aboard flights at other airports, according to authorities.
Airport police spotted her at LAX without a ticket last Thursday, a day after a judge placed her on probation for two years for sneaking aboard the Southwest Airlines flight from San Jose to Los Angeles.
At the Mineta San Jose International Airport, Hartman had tried at least three times to get to a plane before she finally went past a security screener who was busy checking a family’s documents, law enforcement officials said.
Her boarding status was discovered once the Southwest flight landed in Los Angeles, the officials said.
Hartman later pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor count of willfully and unlawfully entering Los Angeles as a stowaway on an aircraft. A judge ordered her to stay away from LAX unless she had a valid ticket.
Outside the courthouse last week, Hartman said she would never try to sneak onto a plane again. “It was stupid, and it is something I don’t want to repeat,” she said.
But Airport Police Chief Patrick Gannon said he had a feeling the woman “with a fixation on flying” would return to LAX, so police passed out fliers with her picture.
In February, Hartman was sentenced to 18 months’ probation in San Mateo County after being arrested for attempting to board three Hawaii-bound flights at the San Francisco International Airport on three separate days.
Her breach of security at the San Jose airport caused federal officials and the airline to launch investigations. It also prompted criticism of the airport in light of the trespassing of a teenage boy who stowed away in the wheel well of a Hawaiian Airlines flight and survived the arduous journey to Maui.
