Allowed to fly...with the wrong passport
AN inquiry was launched last night into how a holidaymaker was able to pass through four security checkpoints using a stranger’s passport.
Hazel Ellaby, 29, was not stopped, despite showing airport staff a photograph of a woman called Kirstie Willett.
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She had unwittingly been given Miss Willett’s passport by mistake when she checked out of her hotel in Turkey.[>
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But immigration guards at two checkpoints in Bodrum airport failed to notice, allowing her to board an XL Airlines flight. [>
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She also sailed through two passport control checks at Manchester Airport.[>
It is absolutely ridiculous
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The mother of one – who is nine years older than Miss Willett – only realised the error when she arrived home in Ashton-under-Lyne, Greater Manchester.[>
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She said: “It is absolutely ridiculous. Airport security is a massive issue but no one noticed I had the wrong passport.[>
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“I keep thinking what would have happened if I had been stopped at the gate after passing through the airport using the wrong passport. I could have been locked up in a Turkish jail.” [>
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Miss Ellaby spent a week with boyfriend Martin Jess, 47, at the Avsar Hotel in Altinkum, where they briefly met Miss Willett, from Sheffield, next to the pool.[>
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Miss Willett, who is still at the hotel on a two-week break, said: “I am livid that this has been allowed to happen.” The pair now plan to arrange an exchange, with Miss Ellaby sending Miss Willett’s passport back to Turkey.[>
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XL Airlines said the firm would contact Bodrum airport to raise concerns about ground staff.[>
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The UK Border Agency has launched a probe into the blunders. A spokesman said: “We will speak to the airline to determine how the individual managed to board the plane and leave Turkey.[>
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“We will also speak to the officers in Manchester to establish the circumstances of her arrival.”[>