5 Passengers board AC flight with fake tickets.

[Blakey]

Oops!

http://metronews.ca/news/canada/843984/ ... ff-flight/

Air Canada is investigating how five suspicious people with fake tickets got on board a Toronto-bound flight on Friday.

The airline confirmed that four Iranians and an Afghan were thrown off the flight in Caracas, Venezuela, causing a five-hour delay.

Air Canada spokesman Peter Fitzpatrick said “immigration issues” caused the delay on Flight AC075.

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He said Air Canada the airline is investigating the matter with Venezuelan authorities.

The five people reportedly had fake tickets and no visas to enter Canada.

The captain made the discovery when there were five extra passengers aboard the flight.

There is a report that a member of Venezuela’s immigration office, an employee for a third party employed by Air Canada, and two workers with an airport security company face charges.

Early reports suggest that one of the workers facing charges is a local worker employed by a third party for Air Canada, although this person was wearing an Air Canada badge and uniform.

The suspects will face charges “linked to the illegal trafficking of five foreigners” at Simon Bolivar airport, the office told the state-run Venezuelan News Agency, according to Agence France-Presse.

There is no word on whether the five people thrown off the flight are facing charges.

Simon Bolivar airport has had security issues in the past. In September, an Air France jet which departed from the airport, landed in Paris with 1.3 tonnes of cocaine

[GyvAir]

Hard to believe that the organizers of this little scheme wouldn't have been aware of the habit airlines have of carefully counting heads on board and comparing that number to the passenger list before departure.

[LuckyPilot]

This isn't the first time this has been tried out of CCS, but not on such a large scale. Being out by one or two is a clerical error, but five! Good on the Captain for catching it, saved AC a bundle in potential fines, not to mention keeping five illegals off the tax payer pay roll after they claim refugee status.
Not to mention, nothing happens in CCS without the knowledge of the Venezuelan National Guard, they are the organized crime in that part of the world. Haven't been to the place in years, but, some things will never change.

[yycflyguy]

Not to mention, nothing happens in CCS without the knowledge of the Venezuelan National Guard, they are the organized crime in that part of the world. Haven't been to the place in years, but, some things will never change.

Yup. The Venezuelan military conduct all the customs and passenger screening and have been known to delay the flight hours as they decide to have their coffee break in the middle of loading just because they didn't like the departure time. It was common to see "full" passenger load but leave with 20 empty seats due to "immigration paperwork" issues. To get 5 undocumented passengers past the screening in place shows a high level of corruption in multiple departments. Their nationalities is also of great concern. I suspect it was more than politically oppressed citizens fleeing their country.