11 Year old flys from Manchester Without Ticket

Sterling Archer

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/jul/25/11-year-old-flies-rome-manchester?newsfeed=true

An investigation has begun at Manchester airport after an 11-year-old boy boarded a flight to Rome without a passport, boarding card or ticket, by apparently tagging on to another family.

At least five members of Jet2.com staff who work at the airport have been suspended following the incident on Tuesday afternoon at the start of the busy summer getaway as the airport was bustling with thousands of people.

Liam Corcoran had apparently run away from his mother while she was shopping at the Wythenshawe civic centre, close to the airport, on Tuesday and had been reported missing. He made his way to the airport, probably on foot.

When he arrived at terminal one, he followed another family, going unnoticed with thousands of people heading off on their summer holidays. Security staff scanned him but failed to realise he was on his own and had no boarding card, passport, tickets or money.

The boy then arrived in the departure lounge and headed to one of the gates where passengers were boarding Jet2.com flight LS791 to Rome. He managed to bypass a security check at the gate without being asked to show either a passport or a boarding card.

Once on the aircraft, none of the crew realised he did not have a boarding card as he took a seat. A headcount failed to alert them to the discrepancy.

The jet took off as normal and it was only during the journey to Italy that passengers became suspicious of the boy and told the cabin crew. The crew members alerted the captain who radioed back to Manchester.

Police at Manchester airport then called the boy's mother to tell her that her son had been found safe and well – but that he was on a plane travelling to Italy.

The plane landed at Fiumicino airport in Rome where the boy was asked to remain on board while the other passengers left the aircraft. He remained on the plane, accompanied by flight crew, as it took off again to return to Manchester.

Manchester airport and Jet2.com have launched a full-scale investigation into how the boy managed to evade so many checks and end up in Italy. It is understood five members of staff working for Jet2.com have been suspended from duty while the investigation takes place

Also posted in AH But figured i'd put it here as it has some Aviation Ties.

Savman

Quite amazing really.

cocoshovel

I can see how it happened to be honest. Anyone ever travel with your family, and you give say your 4 passports and 4 tickets to one person to speed things up when showing it at security? If he huddled with another family and they did this it could easily go unnoticed.

col.in.Cr

"He's evaded checks. He did go through the metal detector and didn't sound any alarms. He wasn't a danger to any of the passengers."

That was hardly the concern here.

pebbles21

Didn't something happen very similar in Dublin back in the eighties i think,were two lads made it to New York without being detected?

Think there was a book or documentary about it...

MagicMarker

It's like the Anti-Home Alone...

pebbles21

Found it...interesting story Here

L1011

I've used MAN T1 a lot. I doubt he didn't go through a metal detector as that'd be next to impossible but what would a kid have that would go off realistically?

VERY easy for a kid to scoot through the self-scan boarding pass lanes on the way through security. They seem to rely on people being concerned that they won't get boarded if their pass *didn't* scan to come to them if there's errors rather than watching to make sure nobody else gets in.

After that its fairly cockup central going on what the airport is like. They should have scanned at the gate and LS should have noticed the extra headcount on board!

Locker10a

I can see how he got past security and the boarding gate (by mingling with a family) but how the boarding card check at the aircraft door and head count didnt notice him i dont know!

LXFlyer

That's the problem - Jet2 didn't do head counts.

keroseneboy

I know of an Irish boy who made it from DUB via LHR and AMS on to a KLM 747 bound for Mexico city. He got off at a technical stop in Houston, Texas and was sent back via the same route. He did not have his passport either. It was 1988, mind you.

LeftBase

Forget the airport etc etc......he has special needs and he wandered away from his mother in a shopping centre(I'm thinking Jamie Bolger although he didn't have special needs). How did his mother not notice he was gone and report him missing?? He would have been gone hours!! Since the Bolger case all public places must have CCTV that can track a kid away from a place and I'm pretty sure that big brother would have found him pretty quick....forget the airport and jet2...what about the mother??

I dont have kids...but I have young nieces and nephews who I take on trips and if they strayed more than 10 feet away I'd go mad...

L1011

In MAN T1 now. The auto security gates are completely gone, back to blokes hand scanning. I do wonder why...