Woman charged for illegally boarding plane at Chicago's O'Hare Airport

Some more infomration from "The Independent":

"Cook County prosecutors told a judge on Monday that someone alerted a ticket agent when they spotted Ms Payton duck under the ropes at the ticket gate at Terminal 3."

"Authorities said that Ms Payton offered to show them how she managed to evade security, saying that she walked into a secure area while Transportation Security Administration (TSA) officers were distracted."

Photos of the woman are available online.

Ok So that gives me so much confidence in the TSA and airlines.....

How did she get through security without one?

On her way to see Jay-Z. She's already out on $500 bond.

The TSA is about as effective as all those people that walk around with their face mask on their chin, AKA chin diapers.

Not surprised at all that she could get past TSA--it's just security theater anyway.
Somewhat surprised that apparently she was only caught because someone snitched on her. You would think that the airlines DO check that you have a ticket....

That's not surprising these days everyone is focused on Covid-19 but airport security should never be compromised.

After having worked as a covid screener and trainer most people are reluctant to challenge someone who appears to belong where they are. I have found people who are hired into these positions are hired on looks and personality and not for strength of presence. Employee is busy with a person and another just walks by. The screener sees it but is reluctant to pause what they are doing and asked the second person to wait. The person who wants to bypass realize this weekness in human character and with lots of self confidence strolls on by. I suspect it happens more than we realize.

Will this alter how airlines work their gate to keep people from getting on board without a ticket?

Ada Quonset!

Even if she managed to get on board un-noticed, I’d think, or at least hope, the flight attendant would notice an error in the count. There would certainly be some confusion as to why but they would eventually figure it out. In my experience, the count was done before the doors closed.

due to the pandemic and a lot of flights not operating,not a lot of people travelling,its probably much easier to sneak by the tsa checkpoints than it used to be..i would question how she actually managed to get on board an airplane without a boarding pass however,since the bp still has to be scanned by an agent or f/a,and of course if a person just walked down a jetbridge and entered an airplane,even with fewer airline workers,someone was bound to ask for identification..this really brings back "the good old days of travel",prior to tsa and security scans!