A man is stranded in Prague and can’t get home. The reason? His friend mistakenly took his passport for his flight home and passed through security and gate checks at Prague, Amsterdam and UK Border Patrol without anyone realizing the name in the passport did not match the name on the ticket. Equally, how didn’t the guy with the wrong passport not once notice he had the wrong one?
The passport was checked at least four times during the journey, but the mistake was not picked up.
A spokesman for the British Embassy in Prague said it was not unusual for people to travel on other people's passports.
He said: "People do travel on (the wrong passport), they don't get checked when they come out and stuff like that.
"It's quite common actually, to be honest with you, people do travel on other people's passports accidentally, it does happen.
"Border controls sometimes don't look, I don't know for what reason."
There are a number of reasons why I would like to see more electronic passport gates an this is one of them. An electronic check should eliminate this kind of error.
Obviously the machines SHOULD have other advantages like working 24-7-365, but since the public sector is in charge, they somehow manage to screw this up (many countries).
No factory operated by capitalists would have the robots or inspection cameras down 50% of the time.
The article doesn't say how long this man ended up stranded. Maybe he still is. I suppose there is some reason, probably a stupid reason, why some KLM staff member, or a staff member from any airline for that matter, couldn't have just brought it back to the man on the next flight. In a situation like this, if doing so is illegal, then why is it illegal, especially if what happened is perfectly obvious to any idiot?
And the man who managed to travel on the wrong passport - what happened to him? If he was admitted into a country on someone else's passport, even if it's his own home country, then isn't he now in that country illegally, even if it's his own home country?
The article also doesn't say whether those who inspected the passport and fucked up are now looking for a new job.
I’m less concerned about these two guys who appear to be perfectly genuine. But if just one guy can get so far evading what should be strict security procedures, how easy will it be for the next terrorist to sail through? I am appalled at a British Embassy spokesperson even suggesting it is not unusual for people to travel on another’s passport.
fountainhall wrote:I am appalled at a British Embassy spokesperson even suggesting it is not unusual for people to travel on another’s passport.
That spokesman must have been trained by Sarah Sanders. Terrorists, criminals, people on the "No Fly" list, or whatever - if they manage to get through and commit crimes, I guess that spokesman would just shrug and say:
Humans make mistakes. We all know this. That is how it happens.
Air safety has been improved by having software to prevent pilots doing dumb things like flying into mountains.
Manufacturing quality has been improved by all sorts of tricks and systems to ensure operators cannot screw it up.
Immigration should follow the example and have automatic entry gates with cameras, face recognition and preferably finger print reading as well. That way, we can prevent innocent errors and also check the person is not some wanted criminal.