Boy, 11, boards plane at MAN with no passport or ticket.
 

An 11-year-old boy boarded a flight to Italy on his own without a passport, tickets or boarding pass, Manchester Airport has confirmed.
The boy got through a security screen by mingling with a family going through Terminal 1 on Tuesday afternoon.
He was discovered while the Jet2 plane was in mid-air after passengers became suspicious.
A Manchester Airport spokesman said the "extremely serious matter" was being urgently investigated.
He said: "It is clear that documentation has not been checked correctly at security and the boarding gate.
"The boy went through full security screening, so the safety of passengers and the aircraft was never compromised."
It is believed the boy had earlier run away from home.
He was flown home on Tuesday evening.


BBC News - Boy, 11, boards plane to Italy at Manchester Airport without passport

It may be that Jet2 do not do a head count on board which should have picked this up. BA have not done it for years (which was a constant bone of contention for me) 'relying' instead on dispatch to 'OK' the paperwork/SOB rather than an actual headcount (normally OK to divide that by one):). On the odd occasion when I asked for one (it can delay the perfect departure, of course:ugh:) a minor b0ll0cking for non-standard procedures ensued, with 'delay' allocated to 'Captain'.

They'd have got the little blighter if he had a bottle of water though. Got to focus on the important stuff. Passports and tickets....meh. :rolleyes:

This just simply highlights the problems caused by the overall degredation of standards in the industry, caused by the increasing pressure of short turnround times, worked out to the minute by people that have never had to manage a turnround. Coupled with the forever lowering prices to handling agents being passed on to the staff as minimum wage or part time contracts. Yes the industry cannot and must not go back to the bad old days of the legacy carriers charging stupid money to the passengers because they had an army of staff to pay for, but there is a dividing line that has now been crossed!

I just feel sorry for the staff concerned as they are now suspended, and will probably be sacked for this. Whilst I suppose they should face disciplinary action for this episode there needs to be a wider investigation as to why it happened, the pressure the staff were under at the time to get the aircraft out. The staff are damned if they do and damned if they dont, face the discipline trail for this episode, or do the job correctly and face the same for delaying the flight!!!

Prices need to go up, and that needs to be passed on to the ground staff, without wishing to insult anyone, the old "pay peanuts, get monkeys" applies!!!

He would never have got through if he'd been wearing a pilot's uniform.

Just watching an interview on the beeb from Manchester - walking in the background three crew in uniform, male wearing a big England top hat, females wearing union flags sticking up from their hair. A dare, perhaps?

BOAC

Unlike many airlines (I don't know about Jet2), BA cabin crew inspect boarding passes rather than rely on a head count. Surely this would have prevented this?

Never seen the odd one 'missed'?

No, but I have seen head counts repeated several times until the numbers agree!

That kid went out for a better pizza and earned himself a truckload of schoolyard cred for the fall when it's time for "What I did last summer".

Well done

Were the cabin crew supplied by G4S?

Non-event IMHO ;)

No system is perfect, and I've managed to take a Milan ticketed Pax to ZRH.

There is a world of difference between a system you can reliably defeat, and one which accidentally allows 1 Pax amongst millions through in error.

Still, will be worth asking security at MAN for the next few weeks if they've seen an 11 yr old boy anywhere :ok:

Agree. The look on their face when they said "Wot, thees plane is not going to Munich?" on a Bristol bound plane is worth remembering :D

Cumulogranite

This should be just as much about the boy getting through the departure gate and passport control than getting past the gate staff and even on board checks.

He shouldn't have got past departures in the first instance - hopefully the departures staff and passport control staff were spoken to, not just the airline staff at the gate (if I presume it was the airline staff that were suspended?).

What passport control?? The UK doesn't have an immigration desk for outbound pax!!!

Airport security should have seen this, but again, cost cutting, poor rosters and low money mean the same thing. Perhaps this is the wake up call the industry needs to realise that the balance sheet isn't the be all and end all. Sometimes you have to pay more to attract the calibre of candidates needed rather than those sent by the Job Centre!!!

This kid should have been picked up at the security gate before the search. He should then have been picked up by the gate staff, and finally by the cabin crew. 3 levels of checks all failed, what are the odds on that?? But it has happened and lessons need to learnt. For me the main lesson which will undoubtedly pass by those investigating, is that the first 2 of the 3 checks are made by staff who are earning close to minimum wage or certainly low wages anyway, who are under immense pressure, have unstable rosters invented by managers who constantly try to make a pint fill a quart glass to hit budget and allow the bosses to announce record profits!!

Everyyone in the chain is to blame, the airlines that have driven prices down, the handling agents that have let them and the shareholders who demand massive returns every year. This event has been waiting to happen for some time, and all credit to the lad concerned.

What worries me more than anything is that if an 11 year old boy with nothing more than the desire to go on a plane can do it then what are the chances of a very focused and determined terrorist doing it? But as long as the staff are stopped from bringing liquids in and so have to pay stupid prices for drinks in the working day then the shopping centre with a runway nearby can exist and make more money!!!

This incident should open up a much needed and long overdue, ADULT, debate about the way airports and airlines are run. What's the betting that a few staff will be fired for attempting to avoid disciplinary action for doing the job right and delaying the flight and the rest of this incident will be swept under the carpet in the name of profit!!

Your heart goes out to the staff involved in this one. I would imagine cups are being thrown at the wall in Leeds about now with the O`Leary of the north demanding someones(proably anyones) head on a stick for this. You would like to think that they might wake up and realise that airport security is not and never can be 100% foolproof and as presently constituted is little more than reassurance for the gullible. But dont hold yer breath :ugh:

Still got to admire the little lad but sounds like he`s a right handful at home :ok:

Cumulogranite I would normally agree with what you said, but hang on, if RYR cabin crew can check each of the passengers boarding cards on arrival, and then complete a headcount once they've all sat down, all within their 25 minute turnaround time, then ANY company can!

Oh Airclues, just because a cabin crew is suppose to check boarding cards, doesn't mean they never make any errors. In my opinion the headcount should always be done, as a cross check to what they have at the gate.

I quite agree about the headcount. But then crew can get it wrong, I know this from watching a departing flight lining up when a gezzer turns up a the desk saying "I was asleep, is that my plane?"

It all depends on how the airline manage the turnround. FR crew I am told follow the pax up the aircraft doing the security check so as the last one gets off they are ready for boarding. The flight crew do the loadsheet and have plenty of gate staff.

I dont know how Jet2 manage thier turnrounds but I have my overall impression of the industry in general, not just one specific airline!!!

You can just see all the new enhanced security checks coming into force as we speak = more delays :( :(

Meeson was always aware of the powers of the tabloid press - he might get a taste of what its like now for a day or two! :D