Stowaway Aboard!

Is it possible, in these days of heightened security and terrorist threats, to get all the way through a major international airport and on to the plane with an out of date boarding pass?

The answer is a resounding YES.

I've been off to Scandinavia once again this week, this time with my new colleague, New Boy. After a couple of days in high pressure meetings with intercontinental colleagues it was time to return back to Blighty.

We duly arrived at the major international airport where New Boy and I proceeded through security, through the airport shopping malls and cafes, through passport control - because not being signatories to the Schengen Agreement we are the great unclean of European travel - then, having checked in at the gate, we boarded the orange-and-white plane bound for Essex International Airport.

So there we were sitting comfortably - what with having purchased Speedy Boarding - waiting to set off. The cabin crew counted all the passengers and then put a call out for two people they were missing. No answer. They then did another count and, at the front of the aircraft, still seemed to be agitated and they consulted the Captain. The stewardess then announced that for some reason the passenger numbers did not tally so they needed to check all boarding passes, starting with those who checked in on-line.

Slowly but surely they worked their way down the plane painstakingly checking each name off against against a long list of passenger details.

Finally they arrived at my row. I handed my boarding pass and, after 30 seconds, I was duly ticked off the list. Then New Boy handed in his boarding pass. 30 seconds...60 seconds...still couldn't find his name. Then the stewardess noticed the problem. He was sitting on the plane with a boarding pass for the same flight at the same time but for the previous day!

It transpired that when New Boy had amended his flight, as I had done, from the evening flight to the morning flight, he'd somehow failed to notice that he'd also changed the date by one day. He hadn't even noticed when he'd printed it off.

New Boy unfortunately had to leave the flight - once he'd explained his error the Captain was happy to take him but the ground crew at Scandinavia International Airport would not let him fly.

Once he was off the plane the crew then did a very thorough check of all baggage and overhead lockers and stripped all the cushions off the seats in my row as well as checking all seat back pockets and underneath the seats, just in case he'd left a present for us - that extra check was appreciated!

What gets me is that New Boy's boarding pass, with printed bar code, was scanned when passing through the security area and then again at the gate when boarding - the ground crew even crossed someones name off a paper list as she scanned it! At no point did anyone or any computer notice that it was out of date - can anyone get on a plane with any old boarding pass?

As for New Boy, the good news is that he was able to catch the next flight home on the same day - just a delay of 7 hours.

LC James
Airside
27th May 2010