U.K. Woman is Allowed to Board EasyJet Flight While Using Her Toddler Son's Passport
Rule No. 1 of traveling: Be sure you’ve got your passport on you at all times.
One U.K. woman did just that … except she accidentally brought her toddler son’s. Not that it stopped officials from letting her board her EasyJet flight.
Lenesha Riley, 33, was traveling to Berlin from London’s Luton Airport when she unknowingly grabbed her son Josiah’s passport instead of her own, the Independent first reported. Both the airline and airport confirmed the incident with PEOPLE.
Neither airport or airline staff noticed the error, and it wasn’t until Riley was stopped by border agents at the Berlin Airport that she realized her mistake.
German officials eventually allowed Riley to enter the country after a family member sent her a picture of her passport, but the stranded mother then had to fly out a relative to bring her the correct passport so that she would be allowed to fly home, the outlet reported. It cost her an extra £186 ($243).
“It is most definitely a security risk,” she told the Independent. “It’s scary to think who else could get in and out of the country using a different passport.”
In a statement to PEOPLE, a spokesperson for Luton Airport stressed that “security was not breached.”
“At no point was security at the airport compromised, as all passengers and their luggage must be screened as required by the Department for Transport,” the spokesperson said. “Airlines will typically check the passport of a passenger before boarding an aircraft. We’re working with EasyJet to understand what happened on this occasion.”
Airports in the U.K. are not required to check for a passenger’s passport, rather just a valid boarding pass, as travelers are required to give valid passport information when they book their ticket.
All travelers still go through a government regulated security screening process, similar to TSA, the airport spokesperson tells PEOPLE. After the security screenings, airline staff at the boarding gate do visual passport checks, but these are not immigration or police checks.
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EasyJet also confirmed the incident with PEOPLE, saying that they are looking into how the mistake was missed.
“EasyJet works closely with all of our airports and partners to ensure the safety and security of all passengers and staff,” the statement began. “We can confirm that the correct passport details had been submitted online in order to gain access to the boarding pass and Miss Riley went through full security screening ahead of the flight’s departure however, the additional visual check carried out prior to boarding should have picked up the passport issue.”
It continued, “As such we are investigating how she was able to travel from Luton to Berlin with the incorrect documentation. EasyJet offered a free of charge transfer to a later return flight so that arrangements could be made to obtain the correct documentation. The safety and security of our passengers and crew is the airline’s highest priority.”
