Mystery Deepens: Missing British Man Boarded Flight from Thailand

[fredwiggy]

2 minutes ago, Kerryd said:

Actually yes.

If your fingerprints are not in Thailand's database, nothing will come up. 

And if I look kind of like you and walk into any of the 50,000 "travel offices" scattered around the country and want to buy a plane ticket, what are they going to do ? Ask for "your" passport and assume you are the rightful owner of it. Travel agents are not "trained Immigration officers charged with protecting the country from nefarious travellers".
So now "you" have a passport and a plane ticket and head for the airport.

And most Immigration officers barely glance at the thousands of passengers they see each day. They check basic details (skin colour, hair colour, roughly the right age and - name on passport matches boarding pass. If nothing pops up on the scanner, away you go.

I've never had one question why my hair is cut shorter than what's in the photo or why I don't have (or do have) a mustache.

It's not a Cold War "Checkpoint Charlie in East Berlin" type interrogation like you see in the movies.

And between 2003-2014 I flew from Canada to the Middle East a couple times, from the ME to Asia a few times, Asia to Canada and back a few times. Essentially went back and forth enough to have circled the globe (west to east and east to west) 3 times. 
Averaged 3 long distance international flights a year. Never had an Immigration Officer anywhere question me about anything more than how long I plan on staying.

I just read an article a couple hours ago where an Interpol spokesman noted that only about 20 member countries actually check passports against the Interpol database.

And MH370 was only 10 years ago. Yet two Iranians were able to board using a stolen Austrian and a stolen Italian passport.

And 5 years ago when I was leaving Canada to come back here I "tested" the system.

I checked in for my flight, girl checked my passport was valid and name matched the ticket. Gave me my boarding pass.

I went to a food court and sat for an hour watching people check in and head to the security check. Or the bathroom. Or the food court. Or the shops.
Then I went to the bathroom and then into Security.

Where they scanned my carry-on and checked the name on my passport against the name on the boarding pass. And as I sort of looked like the person in the photo I was waved through and into the departure area.

Which was why I was paying attention and "testing" the system because once I passed the Security screen - I was in the Departure area and could simply board my flight.

NO Immigration passport check - at all !!! 

And that is in Canada !

I had recalled on a trip in 2014 that I didn't remember going through Immigration when I left but thought I must have just had a brain-fart or something.

But no - when you leave Canada, no one checks your passport to see if you are really you !

Simple as can be. You check in for a flight. Get your boarding pass and go to the bathroom. Mohammed, who more or less kind of looks like you, takes your passport and boarding pass and goes through security.

Security looks, yep, similar skin colour, dark hair, age looks right, name matches boarding pass - "have a nice flight" and away you go.

(I suspect they do that in Canada because they don't really want to know who is leaving the country or accidentally "catch someone" that isn't supposed to be there in the first place.)
 

You said you can sell your airline ticket to another and also your passport. Granted, there are people who can make a fake passport, although it's very hard, and still you cannot sell your ticket to another person and have them use it. I flew to Canada twice to hunt, and they kept me there at least 5 minutes both times looking at my passport, asking what I was going to do in Canada, and where I lived. Thailand has always looked at my passport picture, glancing at me a few times, to make sure it was me. Yes, there are people who look alike, but would they look like this person who's missing, eve if he sold his ticket to them, which wouldn't work unless the passport matched the ticket, meaning a fake one. Immigration knows people change hair color, lose weight, use or not use makeup, and have up to 10 years to make any changes, so they don't just glance at a passport and say go on. I've never seen it with myself, nor anyone in front of me on line. If you're in the departure area, you already went through immigration, and when you board, they usually also check your passport and boarding pass again.

[alex8912]

South Yorkshire police useless 

[alex8912]

1 hour ago, fredwiggy said:

Anywhere I've flown, the officer checking passports always scrutinized the passport picture, looking at me to make sure I was the one on the passport. This includes the US where I'm from. As far as I know airline tickets are non transferable. You can change flights for yourself but not let another fly on your ticket.

You and I can both look NOT like our passports 5 minutes after getting a new one.  Next...." scrutinized" yah right. It's just a face that you are actually scrutinizing. 

[Puccini]

3 hours ago, fredwiggy said:

…Why to Finland?…

 

In their advertisements, Finnair claims to have the lowest prices.

[Nick Carter icp]

5 hours ago, thaibeachlovers said:

 

 

The airline obviously know if he was on the flight, as the crew have to know who is on the plane, and to say they won't release that info is inexcusable, IMO.

 

   It is personal information and private , he can contact people if he wants them to know where he is . 

   Airlines should keep that Info private as its no one elses business 

[Matrosen]

5 hours ago, JoePai said:

Stopped off in Finland for a spot of berry picking ?

Or a taste of Koskenkorva going wrong!?

[RichardColeman]

Hence pay the extra and fly direct ! Hard to go missing midflight !

[SAFETY FIRST]

1 hour ago, bob smith said:

....Some days, SAFETY, I wish that you would be one of them!!

 

bob.

Some days I reckon my Mrs would like the same 😟

 

[kingstonkid]

5 hours ago, thaibeachlovers said:

Unless one believes in telportation, he either never boarded the plane or he disappeared between exiting the plane and border control.

 

The airline obviously know if he was on the flight, as the crew have to know who is on the plane, and to say they won't release that info is inexcusable, IMO.

The airline like any business does not have to release info to the media however yam sure considering the sister has confirmed that they did release it to authorities 

[Kwausie]

Many reasons to disappear, why didn’t he take his girlfriend? Maybe lost phone, drug run etc police have so many missing persons reports they would have no time to fight crime.

[WHansen]

3 hours ago, ballpoint said:

He just vanished into Finnair!

😂😂😂 top class sir

[fredwiggy]

34 minutes ago, alex8912 said:

You and I can both look NOT like our passports 5 minutes after getting a new one.  Next...." scrutinized" yah right. It's just a face that you are actually scrutinizing. 

If you can change your face that fast you belong in the next Mission Impossible movie. Immigration does this all day, every day, and aren't stupid. Granted you might get one who's at the end of his shift, his wife is mad at him, or he lost 10,000 baht playing cards, but that's not going to happen a lot. Of all the times I've flown, in US, Taiwan, China, Thailand, Korea and Chinese airports, not once did they just glance and let me go. The only place that's a little easier is your own country, with mine, the US, it doesn't take so long for me, but I've watched many foreigners coming into the US and they aren't just passed by in 10 seconds.

[fredwiggy]

56 minutes ago, brianthainess said:

That depends on many factors, does it not ? Money owed/stolen, drug dealers the list is endless, wrongly accused of something by the family, none of us know and probably never Will.

True, but again, this one is known to keep in close contact with his, which means they're close, and probably not so nasty.

[owl7]

So.....So He Left UK for Thailand on July 22th He arrived there on 23 and He Left on the 26th.

So all this Journey for 3 days? and he disappeared .....hmmmmmmmmmm

[fredwiggy]

37 minutes ago, Puccini said:

 

In their advertisements, Finnair claims to have the lowest prices.

But then he'd have to still fly to England. Cheapest way is straight there, maybe 2 stops, unless Finland was the next stop from Thailand, but according to the story, his girlfriend expected him back straight away. not side trip to Finland and not going on.

[Kerryd]

For those that don't think it's possible.

Lets say this guy:


sells his passport to a pawnshop (or it's "stolen" or whatever).

And then this guy:


buys that passport, goes to a ticket agent, uses the passport to buy a plane ticket and goes to the airport.

As neither guy is likely to be in Thailand's "Immigration database" (presumably) and Thailand is probably one of the 176 countries (out of 196) that don't normally check passports against Interpol's database, what are the chances some Thai Immigration officer - that's checked 400 people through already and sees 400 more in line and his lunch break is coming up - is going to question that guy "b" doesn't quite exactly look like guy "a" - when guy "a" is at the end of a two week binge drinking and "other fun" holiday ?

Probably zero chance.

Even if Thailand did check the passport against Interpol's database - it would only raise a flag if it had been reported stolen or the owner was "wanted" (i.e. had a red notice).

What is more likely is that the IO will glance at guy "b" and the passport and note the guy is the "right age, skin and hair colour and similar scraggy facial hair. Passport and fingerprint scans don't raise any flags in the system. Stamp, stamp - "have a nice flight" and guy "b" is heading for the boarding gate.

I have never seen an IO give someone the 3rd degree (interrogation) like some people seem to think they do with everyone they see.
And I've stood in a lot of Immigration lines over the years in places like Kabul, Dubai, Delhi, Manila, Bangkok, Cairo, Istanbul as well as numerous Euro and North American airports.

It's always the same thing. Hand them your passport, they look at you, look at your facepage, put it on the scanner, type something on the computer while they wait for the scan to finish, check that no flags were raised, tell you to look into the camera and/or put your hand on the scanner, stamp your passport and hand it to you while waving the next person forward.

They've totally forgotten you 2 seconds after putting your passport on the scanner and most won't even give you a glance after the first time they've looked at you. 
Unless little lights start flashing on their computer screen of course.

So as long as you look similar to the guy in the passport photo and you aren't in the "database" for some reason (and the passport hasn't been reported as stolen) it's really not that hard for someone to get through Immigration using someone else's ID.

(Another, older case involving Thailand. A career criminal from Canada "stole" someone's ID (passport) and used it to fly to Thailand. He spent a year here before murdering his girfriend in a fit of rage. He then mutilated her face, dismembered her body, hauled the pieces to a local swamp and dumped them before heading to the airport.)

Where he bought a plane ticket, casually passed through Immigration and flew back to Canada - still using that "stolen" ID.

That was before "biometrics" and fingerprint scanners - which wouldn't have made any difference at all because the person in the stolen ID wouldn't have been in Thailand's database anyways so no flags would have been raised when he flew out.

(I questioned when that "stolen ID" was reported as being stolen but never recieved a response. "Privacy concerns" I guess.)

ps: Guy "b" in the photos above is the son of a friend of mine. After my previous post I was catching up on some Facebook posts and there was one from my friend with her son and it was like "THERE ! See that ? Someone completely unrelated that could probably easily pass for the missing guy if he showed up at the airport with his passport."
 

[fredwiggy]

Just now, owl7 said:

So.....So He Left UK for Thailand on July 22th He arrived there on 23 and He Left on the 26th.

So all this Journey for 3 days? and he disappeared .....hmmmmmmmmmm

Not one to assume, but it does sound like you know what he's doing.

[cardinalblue]

5 hours ago, Pouatchee said:

This is the second incident of families panicking about their "big boys" disappearing in the last 2 months. Last time a father came to tland after his son had not called in...

 

20 years since i called my folks... the canadian mounties must be on their way by now...

sad or tragic...You would disappoint JD Vance

[steven100]

have they found him yet  ?     is he in a bar   ... 

[dunroaming]

5 hours ago, n00dle said:

One would think that confirming he got on and off the flight ould be a remarkably straightforward process. Thia police would have an image of him captured as he passed through immigration. The Finns, likewise will have records if he entered. 

 

So where TF is he?

 

I know this is a bit obvious but Finnair do cheap flights to London from Bangkok via Finland.  Could he have changed his flight for some reason which would explain why he was on a flight to Finland.  Of course that doesn't explain where he is now, but may be part of the puzzle. 

[stix40]

Swiss  family Robinson 

Lost in space?

Weird !

 

[fredwiggy]

42 minutes ago, Kerryd said:

For those that don't think it's possible.

Lets say this guy:


sells his passport to a pawnshop (or it's "stolen" or whatever).

And then this guy:


buys that passport, goes to a ticket agent, uses the passport to buy a plane ticket and goes to the airport.

As neither guy is likely to be in Thailand's "Immigration database" (presumably) and Thailand is probably one of the 176 countries (out of 196) that don't normally check passports against Interpol's database, what are the chances some Thai Immigration officer - that's checked 400 people through already and sees 400 more in line and his lunch break is coming up - is going to question that guy "b" doesn't quite exactly look like guy "a" - when guy "a" is at the end of a two week binge drinking and "other fun" holiday ?

Probably zero chance.

Even if Thailand did check the passport against Interpol's database - it would only raise a flag if it had been reported stolen or the owner was "wanted" (i.e. had a red notice).

What is more likely is that the IO will glance at guy "b" and the passport and note the guy is the "right age, skin and hair colour and similar scraggy facial hair. Passport and fingerprint scans don't raise any flags in the system. Stamp, stamp - "have a nice flight" and guy "b" is heading for the boarding gate.

I have never seen an IO give someone the 3rd degree (interrogation) like some people seem to think they do with everyone they see.
And I've stood in a lot of Immigration lines over the years in places like Kabul, Dubai, Delhi, Manila, Bangkok, Cairo, Istanbul as well as numerous Euro and North American airports.

It's always the same thing. Hand them your passport, they look at you, look at your facepage, put it on the scanner, type something on the computer while they wait for the scan to finish, check that no flags were raised, tell you to look into the camera and/or put your hand on the scanner, stamp your passport and hand it to you while waving the next person forward.

They've totally forgotten you 2 seconds after putting your passport on the scanner and most won't even give you a glance after the first time they've looked at you. 
Unless little lights start flashing on their computer screen of course.

So as long as you look similar to the guy in the passport photo and you aren't in the "database" for some reason (and the passport hasn't been reported as stolen) it's really not that hard for someone to get through Immigration using someone else's ID.

(Another, older case involving Thailand. A career criminal from Canada "stole" someone's ID (passport) and used it to fly to Thailand. He spent a year here before murdering his girfriend in a fit of rage. He then mutilated her face, dismembered her body, hauled the pieces to a local swamp and dumped them before heading to the airport.)

Where he bought a plane ticket, casually passed through Immigration and flew back to Canada - still using that "stolen" ID.

That was before "biometrics" and fingerprint scanners - which wouldn't have made any difference at all because the person in the stolen ID wouldn't have been in Thailand's database anyways so no flags would have been raised when he flew out.

(I questioned when that "stolen ID" was reported as being stolen but never recieved a response. "Privacy concerns" I guess.)

ps: Guy "b" in the photos above is the son of a friend of mine. After my previous post I was catching up on some Facebook posts and there was one from my friend with her son and it was like "THERE ! See that ? Someone completely unrelated that could probably easily pass for the missing guy if he showed up at the airport with his passport."
 

Thailand is in the Interpol database. Stolen passports are put in if they are stolen in Thailand. A few do get by every year with stolen passports, but stolen passports aren't used much for flying but for ID purposes. What happened just a few years ago won't happen now. If you handed your passport to someone and he immediately went to get a flight, and if they looked alike, it might get past some not paying attention. Once a passport is reported stolen, it can't be used for flying.

[SAFETY FIRST]

48 minutes ago, steven100 said:

have they found him yet  ?     is he in a bar   ... 

I heard he was found in a gay bar. 🏳️‍🌈

 

I can't take this any more, where have all the normal people gone? 

It seems I'm left alone, all by myself, only freaks left here now. 

 

Oh well, at least I have my beer that's sticking by me 🍺

 

 

 

[steven100]

35 minutes ago, SAFETY FIRST said:

I heard he was found in a gay bar. 🏳️‍🌈

 

I can't take this any more, where have all the normal people gone? 

It seems I'm left alone, all by myself, only freaks left here now. 

 

Oh well, at least I have my beer that's sticking by me 🍺

 

 

 

 

is he laying low in Helsinki ....

 

 

[SAFETY FIRST]

1 minute ago, steven100 said:

 

is he laying low in Helsinki ....

 

 

That's him 👍

 

[brianthainess]

1 hour ago, fredwiggy said:

But then he'd have to still fly to England. Cheapest way is straight there, maybe 2 stops, unless Finland was the next stop from Thailand, but according to the story, his girlfriend expected him back straight away. not side trip to Finland and not going on.

Airlines normally fly to their own country first IME. 

[Thingamabob]

7 hours ago, Moonlover said:

So this 'poster' is fake. I was suspicious of this right from the start. What else is 'fake' about this story?

In what way is the poster fake ?

[Thingamabob]

2 hours ago, WHansen said:

😂😂😂 top class sir

Nice one !

[n00dle]

1 hour ago, dunroaming said:

 

I know this is a bit obvious but Finnair do cheap flights to London from Bangkok via Finland.  Could he have changed his flight for some reason which would explain why he was on a flight to Finland.  Of course that doesn't explain where he is now, but may be part of the puzzle. 

The reasons for Finland are entirely secondary to the fact no one seems to be willing or able to confirm he even passed through 

[OldmanJ]

Hopefully in a week or two he will contact everyone saying I just needed some personal space and time and my new friend and I feel great.