Airplane scam
March 17, 2024 9:25 AM Subscribe
I am on a flight from Salt Lake to Austin. There was a scam and everyone on flight is now a detective. No one has solved the case.
We were leaving the gate and a passenger claimed my row mate was in his seat. The lady in front of us said “Hey that guy took a picture of your boarding pass when you were waiting to board”. When she said that the dude claiming my row mate was in his seat got very nervous. Come to find out he was hiding in the bathroom until everyone boarded. The problem for him was the flight was full boarded and seated so he had no seat. My row mate boarded before the scammer did so whatever he was trying to do fell apart. According to my row mate the guy struck up a conversation with him and ask him what group he was in which promoted him to pull out his boarding pass which is when he took the photo and the other passenger must have spotted him doing it. I spotted him having a weird interaction with the gate agent before I got on.
What we can’t figure out was how he got through security and what he was trying to accomplish. Eventually we had to pull back to the gate but he seemed to have the crew convinced it was some kind of mixup. Ask mefi detectives what just happened?
We were leaving the gate and a passenger claimed my row mate was in his seat. The lady in front of us said “Hey that guy took a picture of your boarding pass when you were waiting to board”. When she said that the dude claiming my row mate was in his seat got very nervous. Come to find out he was hiding in the bathroom until everyone boarded. The problem for him was the flight was full boarded and seated so he had no seat. My row mate boarded before the scammer did so whatever he was trying to do fell apart. According to my row mate the guy struck up a conversation with him and ask him what group he was in which promoted him to pull out his boarding pass which is when he took the photo and the other passenger must have spotted him doing it. I spotted him having a weird interaction with the gate agent before I got on.
What we can’t figure out was how he got through security and what he was trying to accomplish. Eventually we had to pull back to the gate but he seemed to have the crew convinced it was some kind of mixup. Ask mefi detectives what just happened?
As far as getting through security: He may have had a ticket for a different flight; he may have flown in to that airport earlier and not left the gate area; he may be an employee of an airport business, or faked an ID from one.
posted by expialidocious at 9:32 AM on March 17 [2 favorites]
posted by expialidocious at 9:32 AM on March 17 [2 favorites]
If he took a picture of a boarding pass, it will have the authorized passenger's name on it. If he only took a picture of a QR code or the like, then it won't look like a real boarding pass and he won't be allowed to reboard.
posted by JimN2TAW at 9:32 AM on March 17
posted by JimN2TAW at 9:32 AM on March 17
Honestly, I would be tempted to tip off a local reporter about this. If you gave them the date/time and airline/flight number and told them about this, it seems like something that a journalist would be interested in investigating. B/c it's super weird and feels like it should have been caught much sooner!
And like, what happened to this guy after they dropped him back off at the gate, I wonder? I would assume TSA would want to question him, right?
posted by litera scripta manet at 9:35 AM on March 17 [15 favorites]
And like, what happened to this guy after they dropped him back off at the gate, I wonder? I would assume TSA would want to question him, right?
posted by litera scripta manet at 9:35 AM on March 17 [15 favorites]
What we can’t figure out was how he got through security and what he was trying to accomplish.
Before the pandemic, some airports had started issuing guest passes to allow non-ticketed entry for shopping or accompanying a ticketed passenger to the gate, not sure whether any have resumed this practice. You just had to show a photo ID at a pre-security desk (and not be on any do-not-fly lists, I guess).
posted by nanny's striped stocking at 9:46 AM on March 17
Before the pandemic, some airports had started issuing guest passes to allow non-ticketed entry for shopping or accompanying a ticketed passenger to the gate, not sure whether any have resumed this practice. You just had to show a photo ID at a pre-security desk (and not be on any do-not-fly lists, I guess).
posted by nanny's striped stocking at 9:46 AM on March 17
some airports had started issuing guest passes to allow non-ticketed entry for shopping or accompanying a ticketed passenger to the gate, not sure whether any have resumed this practice.
I don't know about these purposes, specifically, but you can definitely get a gate pass to escort a disabled passenger to their gate. (I think gate passes have been around since 9/11 rather than being new.) That does, however, require that the actual passenger be present! (Not to mention standing in an infinite line at special services; ask me how I know.)
This is a weird scam because there was a known passenger not merely assigned to the seat, but present at the gate, dramatically increasing the chance the scammer wouldn't get through. Dim or desperate, is my diagnosis. But--if I were to think of worst-case scenarios--they might have gotten a carry-on stashed in the baggage compartments.
posted by praemunire at 10:12 AM on March 17 [1 favorite]
I don't know about these purposes, specifically, but you can definitely get a gate pass to escort a disabled passenger to their gate. (I think gate passes have been around since 9/11 rather than being new.) That does, however, require that the actual passenger be present! (Not to mention standing in an infinite line at special services; ask me how I know.)
This is a weird scam because there was a known passenger not merely assigned to the seat, but present at the gate, dramatically increasing the chance the scammer wouldn't get through. Dim or desperate, is my diagnosis. But--if I were to think of worst-case scenarios--they might have gotten a carry-on stashed in the baggage compartments.
posted by praemunire at 10:12 AM on March 17 [1 favorite]
Getting through the gate is relatively easy. as people have detailed, getting on the plane seems trickier but could be done with some simple social engineering. (Also: Did your rowmate really board before him? He might have boarded first, then hid in the bathroom hoping to find an empty seat just before the plane started moving.)
Why do it? Even if you bought a different ticket, if you pulled this off you'd be on a different flight. Thus saving money or travelling somewhere with no record of your trip, either of which could be valuable.
There was a case a bit ago of a Russian man who got all the way to LAX with no ticket or passport, but failed to clear customs with a picture of a passport he "forgot" to pack. In that case he moved around seats during the flight and evaded detection on the flight. So it seems like it's possible to pull this off, but also that it involves so many steps where it could break down it's got to have an incredibly low success rate.
posted by mark k at 10:29 AM on March 17 [2 favorites]
Why do it? Even if you bought a different ticket, if you pulled this off you'd be on a different flight. Thus saving money or travelling somewhere with no record of your trip, either of which could be valuable.
There was a case a bit ago of a Russian man who got all the way to LAX with no ticket or passport, but failed to clear customs with a picture of a passport he "forgot" to pack. In that case he moved around seats during the flight and evaded detection on the flight. So it seems like it's possible to pull this off, but also that it involves so many steps where it could break down it's got to have an incredibly low success rate.
posted by mark k at 10:29 AM on March 17 [2 favorites]
If the flight was full to the point of being oversold, he could have had a ticket for that flight and gotten bumped. That would also provide motive for the scam, if he really needed to be on that flight.
posted by bluloo at 10:59 AM on March 17 [2 favorites]
posted by bluloo at 10:59 AM on March 17 [2 favorites]
There's a woman who's been caught doing this or attempting to do it 22 times (she doesn't always make it on to the plane but she's gone from e.g. Chicago to London - yes, the London on the other side of the Atlantic from Chicago). She claims there are other times where she was successful and didn't get caught. In her case it seems to be driven by mental illness.
posted by mskyle at 11:12 AM on March 17 [7 favorites]
posted by mskyle at 11:12 AM on March 17 [7 favorites]
He used the picture of the boarding pass to get on the plane 'hey I lost my boarding pass but here's a picture of it', then hid in the bathroom with the expectation there would be at least one empty seat that he could just sit in without being hassled when he came back out.
When there was no such empty seat, he was forced to claim there was some kind of mixup, with the implication that the seat had been sold twice, which is not uncommon, and if it hadn’t been, how could he possibly have a picture of the boarding pass?
The clever and observant "lady in front of" you put paid to that one, and it was checkmate game over.
posted by jamjam at 11:41 AM on March 17 [12 favorites]
When there was no such empty seat, he was forced to claim there was some kind of mixup, with the implication that the seat had been sold twice, which is not uncommon, and if it hadn’t been, how could he possibly have a picture of the boarding pass?
The clever and observant "lady in front of" you put paid to that one, and it was checkmate game over.
posted by jamjam at 11:41 AM on March 17 [12 favorites]
Response by poster: I get the trick which was to hope there would be a empty seat but still can’t figure out how he got into the airport and then on the plane. My row mate was definitely who he said he was and was sitting in the right seat. The scammer was standing next to me and when the stewardess asked him his last name he acted like he didn’t speak English after having struck up a fluent English conversation with my row mate in the boarding area. The price arbitrage thing seems like a scam but how did he get on the plane? Wouldn’t the computer flag the duplicate scan?
posted by jasondigitized at 12:02 PM on March 17 [2 favorites]
posted by jasondigitized at 12:02 PM on March 17 [2 favorites]
The boarding pass seems simple enough: his boarding pass didn't scan correctly or read as already scanned but he convinced the gate agent that it was a computer problem or something. Gate agent is in a rush and doesn't want to deal with it and who would sneak onto a completely-full flight?
As for how to get into the airport, as others have said he might have had a ticket but for a different flight (e.g. maybe he bought the cheapest ticket, or maybe he just realized he hadn't bought the ticket he intended to buy, or maybe he had just gotten off a flight from Austin to SLC and decided he needed to go back immediately).
Or let's face it, your chances of getting through a TSA checkpoint without a ticket aren't *good*, but they aren't zero either. Busy checkpoint, pick a line with lots of chaotic families etc., maybe you pull the same "photo of boarding pass" trick before security - I wouldn't try it, personally (not least because, as this guy discovered, it's just the first step in a long line of things that have to work in order for you to get to your destination) but it's certainly not *impossible* to get through a TSA ticket check without a ticket or other authorization, as Marilyn Hartman has demonstrated repeatedly.
I'm guessing this is not the work of some criminal mastermind, this is just a guy with an incredibly dumb idea who got lucky-ish up to a point but was making terrible decisions throughout (like, the seat that he had the boarding pass image for was LITERALLY THE WORST POSSIBLE SEAT HE COULD HAVE CHOSEN - he 100% knew that someone was going to be in that seat!).
posted by mskyle at 12:37 PM on March 17 [7 favorites]
As for how to get into the airport, as others have said he might have had a ticket but for a different flight (e.g. maybe he bought the cheapest ticket, or maybe he just realized he hadn't bought the ticket he intended to buy, or maybe he had just gotten off a flight from Austin to SLC and decided he needed to go back immediately).
Or let's face it, your chances of getting through a TSA checkpoint without a ticket aren't *good*, but they aren't zero either. Busy checkpoint, pick a line with lots of chaotic families etc., maybe you pull the same "photo of boarding pass" trick before security - I wouldn't try it, personally (not least because, as this guy discovered, it's just the first step in a long line of things that have to work in order for you to get to your destination) but it's certainly not *impossible* to get through a TSA ticket check without a ticket or other authorization, as Marilyn Hartman has demonstrated repeatedly.
I'm guessing this is not the work of some criminal mastermind, this is just a guy with an incredibly dumb idea who got lucky-ish up to a point but was making terrible decisions throughout (like, the seat that he had the boarding pass image for was LITERALLY THE WORST POSSIBLE SEAT HE COULD HAVE CHOSEN - he 100% knew that someone was going to be in that seat!).
posted by mskyle at 12:37 PM on March 17 [7 favorites]
I don't have an answer to this. But I was traveling last week and at some point after I'd made it through security, my printed boarding pass fell out of my bag. Once I realized and went back to where I thought it might have fallen out, it was gone. Not a biggie since I also had the digital boarding pass in the app, but I was a little nervous about someone finding the printed one and trying to board with it. Looks like that's not an unfounded fear!
posted by mirepoix at 1:00 PM on March 17 [3 favorites]
posted by mirepoix at 1:00 PM on March 17 [3 favorites]
I doubt this is what happened in your case, but here's an example of it being too easy to get on a flight you're not supposed to be on. I once checked in for a flight and took the boarding passes, not noticing that they were to the wrong city until the security agent said something. Turned out that someone who shared my first and last name was flying that day and the ticket agent had mixed us up. It was alarming that that could happen.
posted by mermaidcafe at 2:59 PM on March 17 [1 favorite]
posted by mermaidcafe at 2:59 PM on March 17 [1 favorite]
My guess is he got a cheap flight into SLC, so entered the airport secure area there, and hoped this trick would somehow work out for him to continue on to Austin. If the gate was scanning e-tickets this probably got him on the plane (I honestly don't know if that software is smart enough to know the seat's been scanned once already).
Obviously the primary concern is he's there to do Very Bad Things. Otherwise he's just not a really good planner.
posted by Lyn Never at 3:15 PM on March 17
Obviously the primary concern is he's there to do Very Bad Things. Otherwise he's just not a really good planner.
posted by Lyn Never at 3:15 PM on March 17
Getting past security is trivial. They don't check that your boarding pass is real at that point so you can print out anything you like and show it to them. It's not until you go to get on the plane that they scan it.
posted by Tell Me No Lies at 4:12 PM on March 17 [4 favorites]
posted by Tell Me No Lies at 4:12 PM on March 17 [4 favorites]
The easiest way for him to get through security and into the airport would have been to buy a refundable ticket on another flight, get through security, and then cancel the other ticket.
People were doing this in Korea a few years ago, going so far as to board the plane before getting a refund, because it meant they got to spend a few minutes in the first class section of the plane with their K-Pop idols.
People were also doing that sort of thing to hang out in fancy lounges in Singapore, to the point that it is now a crime to enter the Singapore airport past security with a boarding pass but without intending to fly.
posted by Hatashran at 4:14 PM on March 17 [2 favorites]
People were doing this in Korea a few years ago, going so far as to board the plane before getting a refund, because it meant they got to spend a few minutes in the first class section of the plane with their K-Pop idols.
People were also doing that sort of thing to hang out in fancy lounges in Singapore, to the point that it is now a crime to enter the Singapore airport past security with a boarding pass but without intending to fly.
posted by Hatashran at 4:14 PM on March 17 [2 favorites]
Wouldn’t the computer flag the duplicate scan?
Only if airport security isn't security theater.
posted by They sucked his brains out! at 4:23 PM on March 17 [6 favorites]
Only if airport security isn't security theater.
posted by They sucked his brains out! at 4:23 PM on March 17 [6 favorites]
"Wouldn’t the computer flag the duplicate scan?"
Suppose it did. The second scan is the legit passenger, they have id, the gate agent probably decides it's a glitch or an accidental double scan because it doesn't occur to them someone would have a fake pass.
posted by i_am_joe's_spleen at 4:50 PM on March 17 [1 favorite]
Suppose it did. The second scan is the legit passenger, they have id, the gate agent probably decides it's a glitch or an accidental double scan because it doesn't occur to them someone would have a fake pass.
posted by i_am_joe's_spleen at 4:50 PM on March 17 [1 favorite]
(Also I would guess discarded boarding passes are easy to find outside the secure area. Eg yesterday I had checked in online for an international flight, but I had to use the kiosk to scan my passport, and it printed a pass for me which I did not need because I had the airline's app on my phone with the pass. I didn't discard it, as it happens, but I'm sure people print superfluous passes for one reason or another and just leave them.)
posted by i_am_joe's_spleen at 4:52 PM on March 17
posted by i_am_joe's_spleen at 4:52 PM on March 17
They don't check that your boarding pass is real at that point so you can print out anything you like and show it to them.
? Yes, they do. Haven't you ever had to put your phone on the glass just the right way so it reads it while the CBP person looks at you grumpily?
posted by praemunire at 5:33 PM on March 17 [5 favorites]
? Yes, they do. Haven't you ever had to put your phone on the glass just the right way so it reads it while the CBP person looks at you grumpily?
posted by praemunire at 5:33 PM on March 17 [5 favorites]
? Yes, they do. Haven't you ever had to put your phone on the glass just the right way so it reads it while the CBP person looks at you grumpily?
Perhaps I’m suffering from post-TSA memory loss but I can’t recall any point in the security line process where a person has done anything but compare the name on my id to the name on the physical boarding pass I hand them. However, it’s been years since I did a lot of flying so perhaps I’ve just blotted it out.
posted by Tell Me No Lies at 7:10 PM on March 17 [1 favorite]
Perhaps I’m suffering from post-TSA memory loss but I can’t recall any point in the security line process where a person has done anything but compare the name on my id to the name on the physical boarding pass I hand them. However, it’s been years since I did a lot of flying so perhaps I’ve just blotted it out.
posted by Tell Me No Lies at 7:10 PM on March 17 [1 favorite]
United for sure rejects scanning the same ticket twice. This happened to me & my wife -- when we book tickets together, both of us end up with both of our tickets in the United app, and so it's easy to bring up the wrong one when boarding.
iirc it was on an international flight out of Chicago in 2023 that this happened. The details are a bit fuzzy now, but I think
I also am put in mind of some internal flights in India I took back in 2017. After boarding had finished, the cabin crew counted all the passengers. Two cabin crew did it and had to agree on the count. I felt like it was silly but perhaps it is a part of detecting situations like this.
posted by the antecedent of that pronoun at 7:24 PM on March 17
iirc it was on an international flight out of Chicago in 2023 that this happened. The details are a bit fuzzy now, but I think
- she was first, and used my boarding pass, cleared through to enter the jetway
- I was immediately after her, and got a red light.
- she was paying enough attention and walked back to where the United staff were scanning boarding passes
- we were taken briefly aside by another United staff member who checked our boarding passes, scanned hers, and sent us both on (but no TSA or anything, and it took about 30 seconds)
I also am put in mind of some internal flights in India I took back in 2017. After boarding had finished, the cabin crew counted all the passengers. Two cabin crew did it and had to agree on the count. I felt like it was silly but perhaps it is a part of detecting situations like this.
posted by the antecedent of that pronoun at 7:24 PM on March 17
TSA doesn't look at your boarding pass anymore (maybe they still do at small regional airports?) because they use Credential Authentication Technology (either CAT or CAT-2), which links your ID to your ticketing information and will flag any discrepency between the two. This can cause problems for fliers who've made last-minute changes and the system hasn't updated their info yet.
So it seems pretty likely this guy either had a legit ticket for some other flight out of SLC, or had flown into SLC from somewhere else and was attempting to continue onwards to Austin without a ticket. Either way the bamboozling would have occured with the gate agent who let the guy on your plane somehow.
posted by theory at 8:17 PM on March 17
So it seems pretty likely this guy either had a legit ticket for some other flight out of SLC, or had flown into SLC from somewhere else and was attempting to continue onwards to Austin without a ticket. Either way the bamboozling would have occured with the gate agent who let the guy on your plane somehow.
posted by theory at 8:17 PM on March 17
the barcode on a boarding pass often includes things like the frequent flyer number, the pnr/booking reference number, date of birth etc, which is enough info to get going on a scam against the airline somehow (honestly not sure what you can do besides cancel the flight that’s already about to taxi) so a photo of it might be valuable on its own
posted by dis_integration at 8:49 PM on March 17 [1 favorite]
posted by dis_integration at 8:49 PM on March 17 [1 favorite]
I saw this in the [news just last month](https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2024-02-15/a-traveler-landed-in-lax-without-a-boarding-pass-the-second-time-in-four-months). Looks like the people in question took advantage of general airport chaos to evade checks.
posted by miscbuff at 8:05 AM on March 18
posted by miscbuff at 8:05 AM on March 18
I was on a flight ( Canada domestic) where they had the opposite problem. They were a passenger short. The big deal was that the missing passenger had checked baggage. So no take off for us.
What a shit show that was. Endless counts , announcements washroom checks etc
If your row mate had checked baggage it could have turned into a real mess
posted by yyz at 8:15 AM on March 18
What a shit show that was. Endless counts , announcements washroom checks etc
If your row mate had checked baggage it could have turned into a real mess
posted by yyz at 8:15 AM on March 18
TSA doesn't look at your boarding pass anymore (maybe they still do at small regional airports?) because they use Credential Authentication Technology (either CAT or CAT-2)The rollout for this has been very scattershot in my experience. I've flown several times in the past few years and it's always a guess as to whether they'll want to scan my boarding pass or not. DFW wanted it when I flew from there literally yesterday so the size of the airport doesn't seem to be a factor.
posted by Aleyn at 5:21 PM on March 18
The price arbitrage thing seems like a scam but how did he get on the plane?
I fly frequently for work (in Canada). Everyone on my flight is going to work at the same location. Twice in the past two years people have ended up on our plane who were going somewhere else. The second time was an elderly group of four heading to Hawaii who noticed when the actual occupants of their seats showed up. The first was on our way home and the guy was a fellow worker who lives somewhere else. Because our flight wasn't full there was no seat conflict and he didn't notice till the pre flight destination announcement.
In both cases it appears they just accidentally got on the wrong plane. There is a hallway after the check in that leads to several jetways and if you take the wrong one you end up on the wrong plane.
posted by Mitheral at 6:14 AM on March 19
I fly frequently for work (in Canada). Everyone on my flight is going to work at the same location. Twice in the past two years people have ended up on our plane who were going somewhere else. The second time was an elderly group of four heading to Hawaii who noticed when the actual occupants of their seats showed up. The first was on our way home and the guy was a fellow worker who lives somewhere else. Because our flight wasn't full there was no seat conflict and he didn't notice till the pre flight destination announcement.
In both cases it appears they just accidentally got on the wrong plane. There is a hallway after the check in that leads to several jetways and if you take the wrong one you end up on the wrong plane.
posted by Mitheral at 6:14 AM on March 19
When I see anything on MeFi like this, I'm always amazed at the security theatre going on in the US. I've never (well except a while after 9/11 but that faded away) had to provide ID to get on a flight and anyone can go into the gate lounges and associated shopping areas etc just by passing through the security checkpoints. I've flown in and out of a couple of US airports and it's absolutely clear to anyone paying attention that 'theatre' is the right word - there's nothing going on that actually provides any security and the reliability of 'checks' actually coming up with the things they claim are a risk is haphazard at best. So, even if the person had to go through the security act to get to the plane, it would be trivial to bluff your way through.
Anyway, I think what happened here is that (I think someone mentioned this) the gate attendant assumed either the first or second scan was a glitch and, because of time pressure, just let it through. The scanning machines get it wrong enough that they wouldn't be surprised. I once got on the wrong plane at the gate next to my plane, including going through the boarding pass scanner and the boarding pass check when actually stepping through the plane door. It was only when someone else arrived with the same seat allocated on their boarding pass that anyone (including me) realised. If that seat had been vacant on that flight, I would have ended up a long way away from home. So, things like this happen more often that you might expect and, given the number of passengers, will probably always happen.
posted by dg at 3:34 PM on March 19 [1 favorite]
Anyway, I think what happened here is that (I think someone mentioned this) the gate attendant assumed either the first or second scan was a glitch and, because of time pressure, just let it through. The scanning machines get it wrong enough that they wouldn't be surprised. I once got on the wrong plane at the gate next to my plane, including going through the boarding pass scanner and the boarding pass check when actually stepping through the plane door. It was only when someone else arrived with the same seat allocated on their boarding pass that anyone (including me) realised. If that seat had been vacant on that flight, I would have ended up a long way away from home. So, things like this happen more often that you might expect and, given the number of passengers, will probably always happen.
posted by dg at 3:34 PM on March 19 [1 favorite]
There's not much to stop someone just going around the back of the desk at a boarding gate and slipping onto the jetway, or indeed just walking right past the scanner, while the staff are momentarily distracted.
posted by automatronic at 4:01 AM on March 20
posted by automatronic at 4:01 AM on March 20
Followup: The travel blog One Mile at a Time has a good writeup on what happened here.
TL;DR: my guess about him buying a refundable ticket was incorrect; he had a Southwest buddy / standby pass. When he couldn't fly SW to get to Austin, he hatched this scheme, which might have worked had the plane not been completely full. He is currently in jail in Salt Lake.
posted by Hatashran at 11:04 AM on March 20 [3 favorites]
TL;DR: my guess about him buying a refundable ticket was incorrect; he had a Southwest buddy / standby pass. When he couldn't fly SW to get to Austin, he hatched this scheme, which might have worked had the plane not been completely full. He is currently in jail in Salt Lake.
posted by Hatashran at 11:04 AM on March 20 [3 favorites]
NYT article here. He had a standby boarding pass.
posted by praemunire at 2:35 PM on March 20 [3 favorites]
posted by praemunire at 2:35 PM on March 20 [3 favorites]
The CBS news report shows video of him photographing other passengers’ boarding passes. Your flight made the big time!
posted by kitten kaboodle at 12:20 AM on March 23 [2 favorites]
posted by kitten kaboodle at 12:20 AM on March 23 [2 favorites]
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Maybe he bought a ticket for a much cheaper flight? Or maybe he missed his own flight (after making it through security) so wanted to try to hitch a ride on another flight?
But the part that doesn't make sense to me is how did both your row mate and this person get onto the plane? I assume when they scan the boarding pass right before you get onto the plane, wouldn't there be an issue if the same boarding pass came up twice? (I'm guessing this was the "weird interaction with the gate attendant" that you noticed.)
Also, it seems like it shouldn't have been difficult to figure out which one of them was telling the truth. Presumably the boarding pass is tied to your row mate's name, so even if someone hadn't noticed this guy taking a picture, all the flight crew would need to do is ask to see the driver's license/ID for each of them.
posted by litera scripta manet at 9:32 AM on March 17 [9 favorites]