Every so often we hear a story of a passenger boarding a flight without a ticket. There’s now a story out of Germany of someone who did exactly this on two consecutive days, which is kind of wild (thanks to Klaus for flagging this).
Continue reading: Man Sneaks Onto Lufthansa Flights In Munich Without Ticket… Twice!
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
It was once again time for a security incident at my home airport MUC. After all, the last incident was some time ago.
2022: MUC Terminal 2: Operations at Terminal 2 had to be interrupted for an hour due to a security incident involving a very tall passenger. "However, the passenger's impressive height enabled him to remove the baggage in a brief unobserved moment by reaching over the barrier - even before the final check-in process was completed."
Another point for German efficiency. Even the stowaways are highly productive!
Isn't it that the gate agent hands a pax list to the purser when boarding is completed? (passenger manifest)
Some (decent) airlines do a headcount before departure - and (in theory) should notice that there is one pax onboard who is not on the manifest. But that concept probably is too old fashioned.
As a German I do not want to take credit for efficiency or productivity of others. The stowaway was Norwegian.
The police chief taking a jab at climate activist?
So the German police blames climate change on stowaways.
Nutcase seems to be a thing in Germany now.
I recently connected in Munich. I'm not surprised this happened. The airport is in utter chaos. Folks were breaking lines to board the aircraft; passengers were pushing wheelchairs to the aircraft due to a lack of ground personnel, and boarding was disorganized.
And yes, the biggest security threat is the cheap bottle of water we bring from home that we need to dump before security. Whatever!
Entering airside without a boarding pass: possible by tailgating behind another passenger.
Boarding a flight: either same technique if automated boarding gates are used, or just sneak past when the gate agent is distracted.
I'm just surprised the automated gate doesn't raise an alarm. Even the basic gates/turnstiles you see at office buildings have tailgating detection, and those are usually not high-security environments.
The downfall of automation and gates, when if an actual human was standing there asking each person for a boarding pass and passport he might have got caught.
Unless he just slid under the barrier somewhere and waited to sneak past.
Yes, simply things if all airlines just did headcounts might also have caught him out, unless he was hiding in the toilet.
He was European & "White" so no security needed. send them some of the Spirit passengers.they will learn fast!
Have just returned to London from Munich for a weekend break, this doesn’t surprise me. It was the worst airport I’ve ever encountered for border control - taking over 90 mins inbound to get my passport stamped and over 60 minutes to be checked upon return to London . Booths were poorly manned (only 1 open for none EU passports inbound) whilst 3 border force guards chatting and laughing with each other in the booth for the eGates, which for much of the time zero persons were using. It’s clear the management of the border have no clue how to run an efficient service or focus on customers, so someone slipping through doesn’t surprise me at all!
Must agree. Munich airport somehow gets a lot of rave reviews, but every time I had to go through it was nasty. Biggest issue was with the randomness of the security screening. They managed to miss a knife (!) but randomly made me go through the screening line 4 times essentially completely emptying my bags.
And not that it makes or should make a massive difference, but I travel with an EU passport, have a very distinctive German last name and (kinda) speak the language. To me it was obvious they were in need of some fun and I just happened to be entrainment
If this man managed to get onboard Singapore Airlines or Qatar Airways he would be properly charged with criminal trespass etc. etc.
But since he chose Lufthansa, it shows that he's clearly INSANE, and all charges should be dismissed on grounds of severe mental incapacity. No sane person would opt for Lufty..
@Ben, he didn't try to "return on the same flight", rather "on the same plane" or "on the same roundtrip".
What's unclear is how he chose a seat that had nobody assigned to it, twice and how he got through the security checkpoint. There are so many places in the airport nowadays you need to show a boarding pass.