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?!

Happened to me in Austria last year. Was told the crew would search the plane but pretty sure they didn’t. They let me through customs and in to the country no problem, just had to sort an emergency Passport for the flight home.

This happened to me too, put passports in seat pocket remembered as soon as we got off and cleaning crew adamant they weren't there. Thankfully we were on our way home but they never did turn up, I think they were sold on.

Stolen but while we are still in the EU and Greece lets in illegals with no papers, seems daft when the airline and departure airport would have their passport details

Going on holiday tomorrow (well, today) and am now considering pinning my passport to my trousers, just in case.

Happened to me on a flight from LA to London. It prefer yoga pants and a comfy top on a longish trip but the flight was delayed and I realised I needed to change into business attire in flight and take a cab from the airport.

Passport must have slipped out of my bag while I was digging for socks or something and took a solo trip back to the US in the loo.

Needless to say, I could have just taken 5 minutes to change after arrival and still arrived earlier than I ended up managing. Turns out it's somewhat time consuming to cross a border without a passport.

Never lost my passport or driving licence or birth certificate or marriage certificate or credit cards or debit cards or purse, or my certificates for my qualifications etc... I am weirdly extra vigilant and obsessive about stuff like this.

I constantly lose every fucking thing else though!

I don't understand the point about what to do with passport going through security. Put it in your bag! There is no requirement to place it in full view in the tray.

You only need your passport if checking in bags (pre security) and at the gate. Well that's been my experience anyway. I never put my passport separately in the tray, always in a pocket in my bag.

The minute the PP is scanned at the gate, back it goes into the pocket in my bag and there it stays. But I'm sooo perfect lol.

This happened to a friend of mine, but with her iPad. Never got it back. I assume in this case, as in that one, that either a fellow passenger or a crew member spotted an opportunity to make a few quid.

Which is shit admittedly - but don’t look for compensation from the airline because YOU made a mistake!

CCTV on planes would be a good move, not just for lost passports and other items, but for the pissheads who cause mayhem aswell

What are you meant to do with passports when going through security.

I normally keep mine in my hand. Nobody has ever complained.

They did in Gibraltar on Saturday, and wouldn't let me through the scanner till it was in a tray.

Whao, my dd lost her passport somewhere between leaving here and arriving in the USA and they still let her in. I was gobsmacked.

I don't understand the point about what to do with passport going through security. Put it in your bag! There is no requirement to place it in full view in the tray.

Yes this confused me too. Security don’t look at your passport - it can just stay wherever you keep it while you’re waiting in departures.

It says in one news report they'd put them in clear plastic bags in the seat pocket so I'm guessing they accidentally got slung out with rubbish. Either when the crew were collecting trash from the passengers on board or when cleaning the plane.

I managed to lose our boarding passes last time we flew. Luckily we had lots of time so had to queue up and get copies.

It's so stressful travelling. It's really easy to misplace something.

Crew or airport staff sell them on

Yeah, sure, cos there’s never anyone dodgy flying as customers. Bit of a sweeping dismissal of airline crew.

You can’t re enter an international aeroplane once you’ve disembarked.

Notasgreen I'm like you too, i drive dh mad because he's usually the one carrying the passports in his special zipped bag, and every 10 minutes I'm casually asking "Have you still got the passports? "

I honestly can't understand why anyone would put such an important document in the seat pocket.

I once travelled with my grandsons football team. One of the kids left their passport in the seat pocket. We knew within 20 mins of getting off the plane. It wasn’t a case of someone just being able to go back on board abc look for it. There were certain procedure that had to take place for security reasons. After ages we were told the passport had not been found even though we told them where it was and such was my insistence it was in the seat pocket they agreed to look again. It was found. It had been missed the first time because the bloke looking obviously couldn’t get his hand all the way into the pocket but the woman who sebsequently looked could. It was ticked right into the bottom.

I can well understand how the couple ended up in the predicament they’re in.

You can’t re enter an international aeroplane once you’ve disembarked

Yes that was one of the procedures that had to be worked around.

This happened to a friend of mine, but with her iPad. Never got it back. I assume in this case, as in that one, that either a fellow passenger or a crew member spotted an opportunity to make a few quid.

This happened to my husband last year, realised when he got off a 17 hour flight that he'd left his brand new iPad in the seat pocket, it wasn't found, well it was but by someone that kept it

Also obsessive about looking after passports. I too have a clear plastic wallet containing everything. I hand out entire family's passports at checkin and take them all back with boarding cards, they only get to hold them for the few seconds they need them individually then they get collected back and locked up. DD went on a Gap trip with several plane changes and I was obsessed texting her asking if her passport was safe.

She got there and back without losing it, I took it straight off her when she walked in the door and put it in my "passports and birth certificates" file.

😳

This is very common it seems! I put the passports and boarding cards away as soon as they have been checked. I'm very paranoid about it!

I'm guessing whoever went back to check just had a half- arsed mooch around and didn't do a proper search. I often tell DH exactly where to find something but he can't seem to see it right in front of him. If all goes wrong over here, perhaps he can get a job in a Greek airport.

This happened with a school trip on way home from USA. Kid adamant she had her passport and was beginning to get v cross. Hers and another kids passport were fopund in the front seat. Cue all 50 of us waiting at Heathrow for 2+ hrs while crew looked for passports. Annoying especially we told them to check but obviously two didnt listen.