To be utterly confused about couple who lost their passports on a plane?!

[Eastie77]

Just reading the story all over the news about the couple who had to return to the UK 30mins after arriving in Greece because they lost their passports on a plane. I'm truly baffled. They put both passports in a seat pocket, forgot about them and disembarked on arrival in Greece. They realised within 2 minutes after leaving the plane but were not allowed to re-enter so cabin crew searched the 'entire plane' and failed to find the passports.

There must be more to this than meets the eye but I can't work out what. Clearly they had the passports at some stage or they wouldn't have been able to board in the U.K. but how can they have disappeared in 2 minutes?!

I read this earlier... what absolute plebs!! 😂😂

To then go on and complain they didn’t even get offered any compensation!! 🙄😂😂

Somebody pinched the passports.

You would have to be very dim to put your passport in a seat pocket, tbh.

Two possible explanations - either they dropped them somewhere after the last passport check, or, as suggested by someone else, they were stolen.

This happened to a friend of mine! But on her way home so not as disastrous. It never turned up.

I would 100% do this.

I've lost my passport in an airport. Then later in the same holiday I left it on a train.

I’m baffled that they expect compensation for their own idiocy! I’d be willing to bet they lost them before boarding and said they put them in the seat pockets to try to blame the airline.

Probably swiped and sold.

Assuming someone stole them, this would have to be another passenger who a) noticed them putting the passports in the seat pocket and b) noticed that they forgot them and c) stealing them in the 2
minutes or so it took for the couple to realise they'd forgotten them. All sounds implausible.

Also, I've forgotten something on a plane before within minutes of leaving and was able to go back and get it so am surprised the cabin crew refused to allow them back on.

^Assuming someone stole them, this would have to be another passenger who a) noticed them putting the passports in the seat pocket and b) noticed that they forgot them and c) stealing them in the 2
minutes or so it took for the couple to realise they'd forgotten them. All sounds implausible.^

Never underestimate scrotes

It’s bizarre, I did lose our passports and boarding passes in the airport once. Stuck them inside a book in WH Smith, I had been browsing the shelves for one to take on holiday. By some stroke of luck someone picked up the same book and they fell out. Queue our names being called over the tannoy, just as the tears and snot started!

I lost mine in the plane on the way back from Germany.
Moot detained at Heathrow til my dad could bring my driving licence.

Passport turned up 2 years later in the post from Cardiff.

Someone I know did this!

It was on an internal flight, which was the last leg of a very long journey. They had to get copies of their birth certificates and driving licenses in order to board the return flight.

However, when they arrived at the airport to board their flight home, their passports were waiting for them at the check-in desk. One of the cabin crew had found them in the seat pocket.

Same thing happened with DD1's Nintendo DS. Left it in the seat pocket, we realised before we'd even got into the airport, we were not allowed back on. The crew "searched everywhere" - nope, it had disappeared into thin air. She'd been playing on it during the flight, so it was definitely on that bloody plane.

I did this the first time I flew alone, I was 16. I left my passport in the front seat pocket and only realised when I got to the front of the queue at customs. It was excruciatingly embarrassing and quite scary as I had to wait in customs for hours until it was recovered. I’m an idiot 😂

They could have been stolen at any point on the flight though, if they left their seats or were distracted.

I don't think it is the responsibility of the airline so I doubt they will get anywhere with the compensation claim.

I did this once when I was quiet young. The crew let me back on the plane for it.

Lost mine on the plane home once, fell out of jeans pocket down side of seat. Realised too late (Heathrow) and it turned up 4 sectors later in Switzerland

I've read of this happening before. Someone dropped / left / somehow became separated from their passport on the plane. It was handed to cabin crew, who, despite having a passenger list and a captive audience failed to attempt to give passport back to owner. Owner was denied entry to destination country and days of chaos and complete farce ensued as the owner and the passport were separately shipped here and there before the airline finally got their act together and reunited them.

c) stealing them in the 2 minutes or so it took for the couple to realise they'd forgotten them

It was two minutes after they got off the plane. Unless they were extremely fortunate, it probably took them a minimum of five minutes to shuffle forward to the exit after leaving their seat. Plenty of time for someone else to nick the passports.

I did that once, arrived in Amsterdam, all fine until we got to the passport area...oh shit!
So a very handsome airport security guy called the airplane and took me back to get it from the steward who had found it, took about 30 mins, the strange thing was when I was away, an old man had a heart attack and dh was worked on him until the airport medics arrived and took over. If I hadn’t left my passport, we would have been long gone, and dh wouldn’t have been there to help.

A friend of mine had their passport nicked in the same way. Left it in seat pocket, realised once got into airport but not allowed back and apparently not found despite the search.

Crew or airport staff sell them on...

Am I the only person who had massive paranoia about my passport when travelling??

I hold it in a white knuckled grip whenever it has to be shown, then immediately zip it away into my special ‘documents pocket’ in my hand luggage, I will then panic and check every 10 minutes or so that it is still definitely there and I didn’t accidentally throw it away anywhere...

I lost my phone on a plane, missed my bag when putting it in my bag, then the plane took off and I was distracted with DS on my lap so couldn’t do anything as I heard it slide all the way to the back of the plane! The cabin crew and the cleaning staff ‘searched the whole plane’ and couldn’t find it, went off on my holiday thinking I’d never see it again. A man from customer service recognised me at the airport (Punta Cana) on our way back - they’d found it and he gave it back to me just like that! Crazy! So I can see how that happened. I watch my passports like a hawk though so hopefully I wouldn’t be quite that silly.