Canadian authorities are investigating an "unbelievable" incident in which a passenger boarded an Air Canada flight disguised as an elderly man, according to a confidential alert obtained by CNN.
The incident occurred on October 29 on Air Canada flight AC018 to Vancouver originating in Hong Kong. An intelligence alert from the Canada Border Services Agency describes the incident as an "unbelievable case of concealment."
"Information was received from Air Canada Corporate Security regarding a possible imposter on a flight originating from Hong Kong," the alert says. "The passenger in question was observed at the beginning of the flight to be an elderly Caucasian male who appeared to have young looking hands. During the flight the subject attended the washroom and emerged an Asian looking male that appeared to be in his early 20s."
After landing in Canada, Border Services Officers (BSOs) escorted the man off the plane where he "proceeded to make a claim for refugee protection," the alert says.
"The subject initially claimed to be in possession of one bag; however, flight crew approached the BSOs with two additional pieces of luggage which were believed to belong to the subject. One bag contained the subject's personal clothing items while the second contained a pair of gloves. The third contained a 'disguise kit' which consisted of a silicone type head and neck mask of an elderly Caucasian male, a brown leather cap, glasses and a thin brown cardigan."
The man put on the disguise for the officers who "noted he very much resembled an elderly Caucasian man, complete with mimicking the movements of an elderly person. The subject admitted at this time that he had boarded the flight with the mask on and had removed it several hours later," according to the alert.
Read the intelligence alert
"We can confirm that officials from the CBSA met a passenger arriving off AC018 Hong Kong to Vancouver on October 29 and the matter is still under investigation," said Air Canada spokesman Peter Fitzpatrick, who noted that "there are multiple identity checks before departure at the Hong Kong international airport, including Chinese government-run Hong Kong passport control, which Hong Kong originating passengers must undergo."
Hong Kong officials said they are aware of the incident and would call back with more information later.
Jennifer Bourque, regional communications officer for the CBSA, confirmed that "we intercepted an individual, on October 29, attempting to enter Canada under false pretenses on-board an Air Canada flight."
"CBSA can confirm that the foreign national is currently in CBSA detention," she said. "The individual will present before an IRB hearing. The officials of the CBSA will not disclose further information on this file."
Because of Privacy Act regulations, she said, she cannot provide details about specific cases.
"However, I can tell you that CBSA officers examine all passengers arriving on international flights at Vancouver International Airport," she said. "CBSA works closely with air carriers and local, national and international law enforcement partners, to ensure the safety of our borders and our communities. Getting the right information at the right time is a key element in keeping Canada's border closed to safety and security threats."
The agency would not discuss when or why the man put on the disguise or details about how he boarded the plane. But the alert indicated that the suspect boarded the plane with a board pass belonging to another passenger.
"It is believed that the subject and the actual United States Citizen passenger (whose date of birth is 1955) performed a boarding pass swap, with the subject using an Aeroplan card as identification to board the flight," the alert said.
Aeroplan is a credit card where card holders can earn frequent flyer miles.
They should have booked him on the next Air Canada flight right back. If this is just a simple case of an illegal immigrant screwing the system at the expense of the tax payer (refusing to abide by the current Canadian system) than I have no sympathy. You start by respecting the values of said nations you want to immigrate to. I think we should all just revolt… I wouldn’t mind a free lunch/stay on the Canadian Tax payer! BTW, what happened to the 500+ Tamils? I obviously do not know his situation, but his stunt comes out of all our pockets.
Isn't it odd that they have before and after pictures? Is this type of mask/make up able to be reapplied? I agree send him back, but by Monday this issue will have slipped into the obscure.
I'm sure he passed thru security using his own ID, and put the mask on once he was past security. If he could have obtained fake ID, he wouldn't have required a mask.
Getting through airport security only requires a boarding pass, getting on the airplane at the gate requires I.D. and a boarding pass does it not? The check of I.D.'s at the gate has to be done visually, to prevent shit like this happening. Obviously the gate agents dropped the ball on this one, I guess they didn't get the memo about the whole burka mess.
Heliian - international flights are a little different than flying from YYZ to YYB. You are (normally) required to show both passport and boarding pass at every step of the way (e.g. check-in, security, immigration, gate).
Regardless of who is actually the agent, they would still have to abide by the standards. The last time I flew internationally was way back in July so I don't remember if they checked my I.d. at the security checks, but i don't think so. Check in, yes, boarding the plane they did for sure and obviously the customs people did when I had arrived at my destination. But it was only to the EU, I have never been through asia but I'm sure they have a similar set up.
P.S. Air Canada has sucked for almost 20 years and will continue to suck until it finally implodes on itself, but I may be dead first because the damn gov. keeps pumping money into it.
1. Go to Google maps. 2. Go to "Get Directions." 3. Type Japan as the start location. 4. Type China as the end location. 5. Go to direction #43. 6. Enjoy
Heliian wrote:
P.S. Air Canada has sucked for almost 20 years and will continue to suck until it finally implodes on itself, but I may be dead first because the damn gov. keeps pumping money into it.
Give it a rest! Obviously the point of your rant isn't about the story, its your hate on for AC! Lets see some numbers and dates of money "pumped" into AC. Good Luck!
I see how he did it. He used his own ID to get the boarding pass and pass thru all the security stops. Before boarding the plane however - he put the mask on in a bathroom, and switched boarding passes with a friend - a 55 year old white guy - and used the other guys Aeroplane card with the boarding pass to enter the aircraft.
OK my last time in Hong Kong was 2 years ago so my description of the procedures may not be correct.
First, you have a rent-a-cop at the entrance to the secured area. Then, you have HKG immigration counters, before or after the metal detector. After that, it's your standard airline gate agents checking passport and boarding pass.
So when I heard from the news reporter that he swap the Aeroplan card and boarding pass from an older white passenger to get on board, I was pretty surprised.
