A Southwest Airlines flight bound for Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport (MSY) on September 27, 2023 found itself in a peculiar situation: it was carrying one extra passenger who was not on the manifest.
Things came to light before the flight’s departure, when the cabin crew found there was one passenger who did not have a seat.
The crew then manually checked everyone’s IDs to match with their boarding passes and the flight manifest.
After 40 minutes of checking, one passenger at the back of the plane calmly stood up and exited the aircraft.
The passenger appeared concert-ready, wearing a Beyonce Renaissance Tour shirt. The American singer, coincidentally, had a concert that evening at the New Orleans Caesars Superdome.
The incident was caught on camera by Corey Moody, a passenger on the plane seated across the determined Beyonce fan.
“Your lady somehow snuck on to this flight to New Orleans trying to see Beyonce and got caught because someone was still standing up with no seat after boarding.. we sat for 40 minutes while they investigated and she was right next to me,” Moody captioned the video.
The video shows the alleged stowaway standing and getting her bags from the overhead bin and exiting the plane without saying anything.
However, Moody and the other passengers were in disbelief as to how she was able to board the plane.
“You’re embarrassing Beyonce!” Moody called out to the passenger.
Because she was carrying a boarding pass, Moody surmised that she was on a different flight and tried to get on an earlier flight to catch the concert in time.
In a statement to the NY Post, Southwest confirmed the incident, saying: “The Customer who deplaned held a boarding pass for that flight, but it did not scan properly. Thus, their seat was given to a standby Customer whose pass was scanned properly. The Customer who deplaned went on the next flight to New Orleans.”
Beyonce appears to have fans that are dead set on attending her concerts. On September 14, 2023, a fan flying to Seattle, Washington was denied boarding due to his oversized wheelchair. The singer herself ended up arranging things herself and flying the fan to her concert.
Beyonce’s Renaissance World Tour started in May 2023 and will end on October 1, 2023.