Houston man accused of sneaking onto United flight with fake pass

A fake boarding pass got a Houston man past one security layer at Bush Intercontinental, but court records say the real breakdown came at the gate, where he later slipped onto a United flight to Los Angeles and delayed the departure by about three hours.

Investigators identified the suspect as 25-year-old Abdulrahman Oriyomi. Court records say the incident happened May 18 at George Bush Intercontinental Airport, where Oriyomi went through the Terminal C TSA checkpoint and was allowed through after a photo was taken. He was first turned away at gate E16 when his boarding pass would not scan, but investigators say he later boarded United Flight 469, also bound for Los Angeles.

That sequence makes the case stand out for Harris County travelers: the apparent failure was not just at screening, but at the boarding gate. The records say Oriyomi allegedly waited until United gate agents were distracted, then slipped past them and got on the aircraft. In other words, the checkpoint did not stop him, and the gate process did not catch him in time.

The breach was discovered after the aircraft had begun taxiing away from the gate. Court documents reported locally say flight attendants were alerted that someone was inside an aircraft restroom. The plane then returned to the gate, and law enforcement and airport personnel responded, including the Houston Police Department, FBI, TSA and airport authorities.

Additional reporting says airline personnel later determined the boarding pass appeared fraudulent because key information and a QR code were missing. One outlet also reported that Oriyomi told crew members his name was Mr. Lopez and asked to sit in jump seats, but manifest checks showed no passenger by that name.

The case has drawn attention because Bush is one of the region’s busiest transportation hubs and a United hub in Houston. Houston Airports reported 63.1 million passengers systemwide in 2024 across Bush and Hobby, a reminder that even a single boarding failure can ripple through hundreds of travelers, flight crews and airport operations.

Oriyomi now faces a felony charge of impairing or interrupting the operation of a critical infrastructure facility. The charge reflects how seriously authorities viewed the alleged conduct, which turned a routine Houston to Los Angeles flight into a law-enforcement response and a disruption inside one of Harris County’s most heavily used public facilities.