How to hijack a plane - pretend you're a teenager

"Youth pulls a (not so) fast one, hops flight to Maui" from the Seattle P-I:

  • 13-year-old buys plane ticket on-line using mother's credit card.
  • Teen boards plane using student identificaton, without photo.
  • Teen flies to Hawaii.
  • Teen is found at airport and sent back.

In other words, if a criminal looks young enough, then Hawaiian Airlines and the Transportation Security Administration will both be stupid enough to take their word that they're a teenager.

The follow-up story, with the mother's inevitable blame-shifting, here.

My take

This whole thing reminds me of The X-Files episode where the guy who could control minds ("Cerulean blue. I like cerulean blue.") walked into the FBI headquarters with his badge - a piece of paper pinned to his shirt that said "badge."

How can security possibly let anyone board a plane without identification? This kid was going alone! According to the TSA:

Transportation Security Administration screeners at airports require photo identification for people 18 years or older, to verify their spots on flights, but don't require any for youths because most kids that age don't have photo IDs.

Folks, when I was 18, I looked a little bit younger. When I was 21, it took me six weeks to grow a five-o'clock shadow. And you're just going to take their word when someone who looks 16 or 17 says they actually are 16 or 17 - without photo ID? Does "getting a driver's license" ring a bell?

What happens when an adult who looks extremely young, face- and height-wise, decides to game this system?

13 is not 16 or 17 - but it's not that far, either.


Written by Andrew Ittner in misc on Tue 24 June 2003. Tags: commentary, news