A security screener at Kennedy International Airport trying to see his parents off on a trip boarded their plane without a ticket or a boarding pass and was arrested, authorities said.
The man on Thursday boarded an Etihad Airways flight bound for the United Arab Emirates, and when the plane's doors shut, he notified a flight attendant, said Steve Coleman, a spokesman for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.
Port Authority police arrested the man on a misdemeanor charge of criminal trespass, Coleman said. The man, who later was released, is a passenger and baggage screener for the Transportation Security Administration, agency spokeswoman Ann Davis said.
A telephone call to an airline spokesman was not immediately returned Thursday night.