LOS ANGELES _ A Tokyo-bound flight from Los Angeles that turned back to widespread attention on social media was carrying not one but two passengers unauthorized to be on board, the Transportation Security Administration said Wednesday.
One of the passengers had a boarding pass for a United Airlines flight and the other for a separate All Nippon Airlines flight, said Mike England, a TSA spokesman.
Both were aboard Tokyo-bound All Nippon Airlines Flight 175 when it departed Los Angeles International Airport about 11:30 a.m. Tuesday. About four hours after it departed, it turned around and headed back to Los Angeles, where it landed about 7:30 p.m.
Model Chrissy Teigen, who was on the rerouted flight, kept her Twitter followers entranced for hours after she recounted the incident in a series of tweets starting before 5:30 p.m. Tuesday.
"(A) flying first for me: 4 hours into an 11 hour flight and we are turning around because we have a passenger who isn't supposed to be on this plane. Why ... why do we all gotta go back, I do not know," Teigen tweeted.
"At the time during the flight, the pilot in command was presented with information about the discrepancy in the passenger manifest. Based on the available information in flight, he made the correct decision to return to LAX," the airline said in a statement. "ANA supports the decision of the pilot, out of the abundance of caution and safety for the passengers and crew onboard."
The two unauthorized passengers had moved through security checkpoints together and gone through the TSA's 20 layers of security _ both seen and unseen _ before they made it to the terminal, a government official said.
The passenger with an ANA boarding pass was scheduled for another flight to Tokyo that day, the official said.
It was up to the airline's employees to ensure the passengers had the proper boarding passes for the flight, authorities said.
Once the flight returned in Los Angeles and passengers exited the aircraft, the FBI interviewed the passengers, the government official said.
No arrests have been made, according to the FBI.
By early Wednesday morning, Teigen and her fellow passengers were back on board and headed for Tokyo.
In its initial statement, All Nippon Airways said a mix-up between a passenger and the flight crew led to Tuesday's abrupt turnaround.
"ANA is researching the situation currently to determine how the passenger boarded the flight. ANA would like to express its apologies to the passengers for the inconvenience. We take great pride providing exemplary customer service, and on this flight we failed to do so," the statement read.
There were 208 passengers on the flight's manifest, a spokesman for the airline said Wednesday. Details on the second passenger were not immediately addressed.
Teigen was on the flight with her husband, John Legend. Other passengers joined in their social media commentary.
Teigen and her fellow passengers boarded a second flight for Tokyo early Wednesday and departed after 12:30 a.m. and were expected to arrive in Japan less than 12 hours later.
