In a bizarre sequence of events that amounts to a serious breach of security, a 37-year old man who did not have an airline boarding pass managed to clear three security checkpoints and fly from Mumbai to Rajkot on a Jet Airways flight last Friday. The man was supposed to take a flight to Nagpur, but boarded the one to Rajkot, that too after leaving behind his boarding pass at the airport. After he reached Rajkot he realized he had flown to the wrong destination and informed Jet officials. The airline remained clueless till then. The incident brings into question the security arrangements at Mumbai airport made by both by the airline and CISF.
"Jet officials flew him back to Mumbai and put him on another flight to Nagpur. It is a serious breach of security, the kind that one thinks could never happen," said a source.
This man had no business being on the Rajkot flight, but none of the security checks in place zeroed in on him," he added. "We are looking into the matter," said a CISF official. At the time of going to press, Jet was yet to respond.
The incident occurred on April 25 after Liju Verghese landed in Mumbai airport from an international flight. He was booked for an onward journey to Nagpur and was supposed to board the 4.11pm Jet Airways flight 9W 2165. Verghese, who was reportedly in an inebriated state, cleared the CISF security check at domestic terminal 1B of the Mumbai airport. With the security-stamped boarding pass and a handbag, he then proceeded to the security hold area to wait for the boarding announcement. Meanwhile, a boarding call was made for the JetKonnect Mumbai-Rajkot flight 9W 4079 scheduled for a 3.25pm departure from gate number A2 of domestic terminal 1C. The passengers were to board the Rajkot flight using an aerobridge.
That is when things spiralled into a different direction. "The man left behind his handbag, which also contained his boarding pass and for some reason proceeded to board the flight to Rajkot," said a source. First, he managed to walk past Jet's customer service staff entrusted with what's called "passenger reconciliation". It is a mandatory security procedure done to ascertain whether the number of passengers who check in for a given flight is equal to the number of passengers who have boarded the aircraft. The airline staffers manually check the seat numbers on each boarding pass and tally it with the data they gather from their check-in desks.
"That he crossed this security check is surprising. For, this was a passenger who was not supposed to be on that flight and those at this security checkpoint are supposed to spot such cases," said a source. Next, Verghese managed to get past the CISF security personnel who check whether the boarding pass and the tags on the hand baggages of passengers have the CISF's security-cleared stamp. Then, prior to entering the aircraft, Jet's security personnel man the doors to verify whether all passengers are carrying the boarding passes for the right destination, whether their boarding passes and baggage tags carry the CISF security stamp. Verghese crossed that barrier as well.
On entering the aircraft Verghese randomly chose a seat and sat down only to be questioned by a passenger who claimed that seat. "He got up and gave the seat to the said passenger. The flight attendant present in the vicinity did not bother to enquire about Verghese's boarding pass to find out his seat number. He was told to occupy any vacant seat available," said the source.
Lastly, a head count of passengers is supposed to be taken to tally it with the number of passengers entered in what's called a Load and Trim sheet. It is essentially a register of weights and their location inside an aircraft. It carries details like the total number of people onboard, total baggage weight, weight of fuel uploaded, etc. "While a final headcount is judiciously taken on international flights, on many domestic flights the practice is not diligently followed," said an official. Had a headcount been taken, they would have figured out that flight had one unaccounted passenger on board—a very serious situation from the security point of view.
It was after the flight landed and the passenger disembarked and found himself in Rajkot instead of Nagpur that the airline realized what had happened. Meanwhile, the Mumbai-Nagpur flight that he was supposed to board departed, but not before finding out that one passenger who had checked in had not reported for boarding. His check-in bags were removed from the aircraft and left at Mumbai airport for a security check. That was the only thing that went as per the laid-down security norms.
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