Man Disguised Himself as an Elderly to Board Plane

This one is a bizarre story of disguise and air travel: a man wore a realistic disguise to turn himself into an elderly man and boarded an Air Canada flight. Mid-flight, he went into the bathroom, took off his mask, and turned himself back into a young man.

The incident occurred on October 29 on Air Canada flight AC018 to Vancouver originating in Hong Kong. An intelligence alert from the Canada Border Services Agency describes the incident as an "unbelievable case of concealment."

"Information was received from Air Canada Corporate Security regarding a possible imposter on a flight originating from Hong Kong," the alert says. "The passenger in question was observed at the beginning of the flight to be an elderly Caucasian male who appeared to have young looking hands. During the flight the subject attended the washroom and emerged an Asian looking male that appeared to be in his early 20s."

After landing in Canada, Border Services Officers (BSOs) escorted the man off the plane where he "proceeded to make a claim for refugee protection," the alert says.

Scott Zamost of CNN has more: Link


It's entirely possible nobody at the airline was at fault here. Let's say this guy had a domestic ticket to fly somewhere within China from Hong Kong, and he has an accomplice with a ticket to Canada. They both get through passport control no problem, each with their correct IDs and tickets. On the other side, accomplice hands over the Canada ticket and an ID with that name and an old-man picture. Our dude goes into a restroom and puts on his old man costume, which look similar enough to the ID which matches the name on the boarding pass to Canada. Accomplice leaves the airport. The big lapse here is Hong Kong airport screening not finding the costume in the carry-on bags suspicious.
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They knew something was up when they saw his hands looked too young for the rest of his "visible" body, they could have detained him until they proved his identity, but they just let it slide. The airline is going to get grilled for this one.
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This one's hard to swallow. jenjen has the best explanation of how it could be done, because nobody could get through security wearing a mask like that, and unable to answer questions. Why so elaborate a ruse? I think we're so used to cartoons and fake photos that we're more inclined to believe something from a picture. But in real life, if someone were wearing that mask, it would be fairly easy to spot.
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