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Okay you experts. How did it happen?


klfrodo
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No idea. I do know that during boarding, sometimes gate agents get a bit out of sync. Sometimes a BP doesn't scan properly and they have to manually enter the info. That might have been a source of the problem. Or something else. And I bet the real answer will never reach the public. (For the same reason as the following paragraph)

 

As for why they turned around....security protocols. It's that same explanation used by flight crews to bully passengers and stiffle any kind of disagreement. Remember, it is a federal offense not to follow the instructions of a member of the flight crew, even if it is the stupidest, idiotic and unnecessary thing in the world. YOU WILL OBEY!!

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According to CNN, two brothers were both going to Tokyo but were booked on separate flights. Further it was stated that the two brothers have very similar names. Somehow, both brothers were allowed to board the All Nippon Airways flight, even though only one of the brothers was actually booked on the flight. There are a lot of checks and balances in place to prevent it from happening. Where did the system break down. Scanners, flights announcements, gate agents, cabin crew, etc.. Multiple failures on all accounts.

 

 

John

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Of course airline preceedures should have prevented this but I’m wondering why the brother with the ticket on another airline would even attempt to board this airline? Unless he lacks cognitive ability, I see no excuse that is acceptable.

 

Gate displays often show all of the various codeshares on a flight, so it is quite possible that he saw "United" and "Tokyo" at the gate and assumed it was his flight.

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Gate displays often show all of the various codeshares on a flight, so it is quite possible that he saw "United" and "Tokyo" at the gate and assumed it was his flight.

 

Yep, and not only did both the UA and ANA flights have code share numbers for each other's flights, but both flights depart LAX at the exact same time -- 10:45am.

 

Another possible red flag I don't think has been mentioned is seat assignments. Did the guy on the wrong flight take a seat assigned to another passenger?

Edited by BEAV
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The information I got was that the "non flying" pax had a duplicate copy of the boarding pass (Simply printed out another copy???) and just waved it to the GA after (legit) brother boarded.

 

Guessing now, but he could have simply said something along the line of "I already scanned in but I forgot my coat in the boarding area" or something like that.

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The system is supposed to have at least double redundancy so it is more than one blunder.

Heck scan count vs head count is one that comes to mind.

 

It might not. Head counts are not done by all airlines in all countries. Not certain what the ANA procedures are.

 

It is also not clear if this was a complete accident or the two brothers were trying to do something sneaky.

 

I could see one brother booking his ticket and then telling the second on to book the United 10:30 to Tokyo. Given there are two United 10:30 departures (one on United metal and the other on ANA metal), you could see how they thought they were both on the same flight but were not.

 

As for the gate agents during the checkin process, they are trying to board a large number of passangers. Some passangers are going to have boarding passengers are going to have their boarding passes printed on ANA stock, United stock or Air Canada or Copa boarding cards. Some from online checkin and others from airport kiosks. If it does not scan, they will manually enter the seat number.

 

Not certain we will ever know the full story.

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It might not. Head counts are not done by all airlines in all countries. Not certain what the ANA procedures are.

 

It is also not clear if this was a complete accident or the two brothers were trying to do something sneaky.

 

I could see one brother booking his ticket and then telling the second on to book the United 10:30 to Tokyo. Given there are two United 10:30 departures (one on United metal and the other on ANA metal), you could see how they thought they were both on the same flight but were not.

 

As for the gate agents during the checkin process, they are trying to board a large number of passangers. Some passangers are going to have boarding passengers are going to have their boarding passes printed on ANA stock, United stock or Air Canada or Copa boarding cards. Some from online checkin and others from airport kiosks. If it does not scan, they will manually enter the seat number.

 

Not certain we will ever know the full story.

I don't think they really thought they were on the same flight...the duplicating of the one brother's BP makes that very clear.

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