A Norwegian man managed to successfully board flights at Munich Airport without a ticket on two consecutive days. He was able to board one of the flights, which should prompt the airport to rethink its security measures.
The ten-toe discount
Although his identity was not revealed, a 38-year-old Norwegian citizen managed to bypass security checks and secretly board two different Lufthansa aircraft.
He committed his first trespass on a Lufthansa flight to Hamburg. What he didn’t expect, however, was that the plane was fully booked. The stowaway was later handed over to the police, but was released shortly afterwards.
The next day, he tried to board another flight from Munich to Stockholm (flight LH2418) in practically the same way. Fortunately, this time there were free seats and he was able to stay on the plane without arousing suspicion.
When he tried to fly back on the same plane, he had no luck. The flight crew arrested him and confiscated a knife from him. The authorities flew him back to Germany, where he is now charged with fare evasion and trespassing.
Explanations about security at Munich Airport
Although the intruder has not made a public statement about how he managed to get on board the planes, experts have an idea how he could have easily managed to get through without alerting the guards. At Munich Airport, boarding passes are scanned and the gates open and close automatically for each passenger. The theory is that the man walked closely and quietly behind someone as they scanned their passport to get through the gates.
As for the “why,” police suspect that the man simply enjoyed flying and planned to fly back to Munich immediately after arriving in Stockholm. However, the fact that he was carrying a knife should certainly raise some red flags. According to a representative of the Upper Bavaria district government, the knife in the man’s possession was an “authorization-free item” that complied with European Union regulations.
The chairman of the police union in Germany, Andreas Roßkopf, sent the following statement to Bild about the two-day incidents:
“I have never experienced anything like this in my career as a civil servant. The airport must explain how this could have happened. Climate activists simply cut open fences and now a passenger is flying through Europe without a ticket.”
It was very fortunate that the stowaway had no bad intentions and the intrusion into the plane was the worst thing that happened at Munich Airport. Investigations are currently underway and hopefully these security points can be better monitored to prevent similar or possibly worse scenarios in the future.
What do you think? Have you ever seen stowaways on your flights? Share your thoughts and stories in the comments below!
