PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - Hawaiian Airlines HA 459 HNL-ICN inflight turnback (over Midway Island) unruly pax
Old 5th Mar 2019, 08:19
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edi_local
 
Join Date: Jul 2011
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With regards to questions 4, 6 and 7...

4. Assuming he is a South Korean citizen, they don't need a visa to enter the USA, only an ESTA. The passenger likely had all the correct paperwork and was refused at the point of entry for whatever reason. That's not something the airline taking him to the USA could know would happen so they woikd have had no grounds to deny him travel.

6/7 If he was being processed as an INAD (inadmissible) or a DEPU (Deportee unescorted) then the crew would have known about it and would have likely been in possession of his paperwork until arrival in ICN. Regulations vary from carrier to carrier but if he was either of those I'm surprised he was sat next to a child. In my experience (in the UK so USA may differ) such passengers are seated alone, at the back, where the crew can easily keep an eye on them. These people are usually escorted to the plane meaning any chance of buying duty free is slim. In the event of a full flight they would only be sat next to other adults.

It seems like he wasn't handled as either of those and was just simply told to leave the country. He was apparently allowed to board himself and make his own way to the plane. That would explain the duty free purchase and sitting next to a kid anyway. Unless standard procedure in the USA is different.
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