Chennai: Security lapses at the international terminal of the city airport have become a major concern in recent times, with the latest incident of two passengers travelling on each other’s tickets.
According to airport sources, Abdul Hamid Uvais (46), who was to travel from Chennai to Colombo, and Kajendran (37), another passenger bound for Paris, had exchanged their boarding passes after the security checks and had travelled in the other’s ticket.
It was only when the Paris-bound flight transited at Delhi that the immigration officials at the airport found that Abdul Hamid was travelling without a valid ticket. He was immediately detained in Delhi and sent back to Chennai the next day.
It is still not clear as to why the passes were exchanged and what the duo was up to. But the fact remains that if it was not for the checking at Delhi airport, the two would have gotten away easily. This exposes Chennai airport’s security measures.
Mohan, a former employee of an airlines, said, “Usually, only the boarding pass is checked at the gate to make sure that the right passenger is boarding the right aircraft. In a short span of time, the employee has to check the boarding passes of all the passengers. When I heard of this incident, the 1984 Madras bomb blast and the Emperor Kanishka tragedy came back to me. These two incidents happened due to similar lapses.”
23/09/15 M Balasubramani/News Today
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According to airport sources, Abdul Hamid Uvais (46), who was to travel from Chennai to Colombo, and Kajendran (37), another passenger bound for Paris, had exchanged their boarding passes after the security checks and had travelled in the other’s ticket.
It was only when the Paris-bound flight transited at Delhi that the immigration officials at the airport found that Abdul Hamid was travelling without a valid ticket. He was immediately detained in Delhi and sent back to Chennai the next day.
It is still not clear as to why the passes were exchanged and what the duo was up to. But the fact remains that if it was not for the checking at Delhi airport, the two would have gotten away easily. This exposes Chennai airport’s security measures.
Mohan, a former employee of an airlines, said, “Usually, only the boarding pass is checked at the gate to make sure that the right passenger is boarding the right aircraft. In a short span of time, the employee has to check the boarding passes of all the passengers. When I heard of this incident, the 1984 Madras bomb blast and the Emperor Kanishka tragedy came back to me. These two incidents happened due to similar lapses.”
23/09/15 M Balasubramani/News Today
