onedef92
04-11-2011, 9:16am
Woman gets on Memphis flight with wrong boarding pass
Posted: Apr 10, 2011 10:17 PM EDT
Updated: Apr 11, 2011 10:11 AM EDT
MEMPHIS, TN - (WMC-TV) - In our post 9/11 world, it is hard to fathom that someone could get on a plane with boarding pass with a different name, different departure time, and a date from last month. Yet it happened Sunday at the Memphis International Airport.
"Why do we have security if you can get through with something like that," Kathleen Beard said, referring to her wrong boarding pass. "The date was wrong, the name was wrong, and the flight time was wrong."
Beard managed to get on a plane with a boarding pass in a man's name, for a flight that departed at a different time, last month.
"I could have been anybody," Beard said.
Beard, a frequent flyer, accidentally printed out a boarding pass for her friend's old flight, instead of her boarding pass. Security didn't notice.
Then she went through the plane checkpoint, and onto the plane. Before the plane took off, someone discovered the problem.
"They came on the plane asking for my friend's name. I said, he's not on the plane, but I know him. They said 'Where is he?' I said, he's at the office."
An AirTran employee told her to get off the plane.
"The two of us were equally perplexed, because he couldn't fathom how I got through."
Beard is concerned about the security lapse.
"That's pretty egregious I think."
The Memphis Airport Authority referred us to the Transportation Security Administration for comment.
The TSA issued the following statement: "Every day TSA screens nearly 2 million passengers and utilizes many layers of security to keep our nation's transportation systems secure.
While we are reviewing the verification of this passenger's travel documents, it is important to note that the passenger was subject to the same physical screening at the checkpoint as all other passengers."
Posted: Apr 10, 2011 10:17 PM EDT
Updated: Apr 11, 2011 10:11 AM EDT
MEMPHIS, TN - (WMC-TV) - In our post 9/11 world, it is hard to fathom that someone could get on a plane with boarding pass with a different name, different departure time, and a date from last month. Yet it happened Sunday at the Memphis International Airport.
"Why do we have security if you can get through with something like that," Kathleen Beard said, referring to her wrong boarding pass. "The date was wrong, the name was wrong, and the flight time was wrong."
Beard managed to get on a plane with a boarding pass in a man's name, for a flight that departed at a different time, last month.
"I could have been anybody," Beard said.
Beard, a frequent flyer, accidentally printed out a boarding pass for her friend's old flight, instead of her boarding pass. Security didn't notice.
Then she went through the plane checkpoint, and onto the plane. Before the plane took off, someone discovered the problem.
"They came on the plane asking for my friend's name. I said, he's not on the plane, but I know him. They said 'Where is he?' I said, he's at the office."
An AirTran employee told her to get off the plane.
"The two of us were equally perplexed, because he couldn't fathom how I got through."
Beard is concerned about the security lapse.
"That's pretty egregious I think."
The Memphis Airport Authority referred us to the Transportation Security Administration for comment.
The TSA issued the following statement: "Every day TSA screens nearly 2 million passengers and utilizes many layers of security to keep our nation's transportation systems secure.
While we are reviewing the verification of this passenger's travel documents, it is important to note that the passenger was subject to the same physical screening at the checkpoint as all other passengers."