This is an absurd and somewhat frightening story my friend just showed me. A Chinese man in his early twenties disguised himself with a latex mask to pass as an older caucasian gentlemen in order to take a flight from Hong Kong to Vancouver. Mid-flight the man went to the lavatory and took off the disguise. Another passenger noticed the change and alerted a flight associate. When the plane arrived in Vancouver officials took the man into custody where he immediately made a claim for refugee protection. He is now being held for an immigration hearing. If you have time watch the short 3 minute CNN video provided in the link below. It is crazy to see the man as a young Asian and then again as an elderly caucasian. Not only was the disguise incredible but his ability to pass through airport security was incredible as well. There are such great security risks that ran with this. It is speculated that the man switched boarding passes and ID's with a 55 year old American. This could be considered a new breakthrough in illegally jumping borders. Had the man kept his disguise on until his flight landed in Vancouver, no doubt he would have gotten away. But what needs to be done to make sure people can't get on airplanes disguised as another person? How could this have been prevented pre-boarding of the flight and how will it be prevented in the future? It seems silly to ask this but the man's mask was almost an exact replication of another human's face. How would a security personnel go about testing for this? I am eager to find out more about who this man is and what his intentions were after his arrival in Canada. I will keep you posted if I find out any more information about this story but until then I definitely encourage you to watch this clip!
This is a crazy story! When you consider all of the precautions that security at international airports take, it SHOULD be hard to believe that someone could just walk in disguised as a different person. Realisticlly this could be a very simple way for people to come in and out of borders unnoticed.
ReplyDeleteA few years ago I dressed up as an old man for Halloween and considering that most of the people that knew me didn't recognize me, I'm sure I could have gotten by security. Are our airports really safe at all? I have taken many flights in my life and I always think about safety as I'm going through security checks and boarding my plane. There are so many ways that people could slide through security without being noticed.
Dressing up as a different person and entering a country is very clever and very scary for the security issues that the United States deals with.