A startling security lapse unfolded at Dhaka Airport in Bangladesh when a 12-year-old boy, who had run away from school, managed to board a flight departing the country unaccompanied. He was only apprehended when the cabin crew realized there was one seat too many for the number of passengers on board.
In a baffling turn of events, the young boy successfully navigated through multiple security checkpoints, including immigration, and one of the boarding gates to board a Kuwait Airways flight bound for Kuwait City. The incident occurred in the early hours of September 12th in Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh, as Kuwait Airways Flight KU284 was preparing for takeoff, as reported by Aero Telegraph and the Daily Star. Local media outlets have reported that the boy had escaped from a boarding school and made his way to the country’s main airport, where he managed to evade detection through at least five security levels.
After sneaking onto the Boeing 777, the boy allegedly found an empty seat and occupied it without any of the other passengers or cabin crew realizing that he should not have been there. It was only towards the end of the boarding process, with the aircraft already full and the intended occupant of the seat in question arriving, that he was identified as an intruder. Since he had no boarding pass, a flight attendant was alerted, and she also noted that the boy had no passport. A headcount on board confirmed him as a stowaway, and there was an extra person on the flight.
This incident has left Bangladeshi authorities embarrassed, and several security and immigration personnel on duty at the time have been suspended pending an investigation. It was revealed that the boy managed to slip through immigration control undetected by pretending to be part of an elderly couple’s family, effectively bypassing the immigration checkpoint without arousing suspicion.
Source: aviation24.be