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?!

Two British passports? Instantly stolen (by staff or other passengers) and probably sold already for a tidy profit.

I can't believe thst people actually put their passports in the seat pocket. DH and I always make sure our passports are put safely in our bags usually in a zipped pocket straight after the last check.

That happened to me and my sister about 12 years ago. It sounds ridiculous but I can only assume someone stole our passports. We were on our flight home from Rhodes.

RollaCola - apparently there is big business in passports. I was surprised.

We flew to Dubai a couple of years ago and were in business class. I left my kindle in the drawer beside the seat. It’s a very basic one and quite old So although annoyed with myself I resigned myself to buying a new one. Had lunch with a friend who lives in Dubai and she said they are really good with lost property so to call them. I did and they said they had it. Trotted off to lost property on our departure and the guy kept asking for a boarding pass. I kept telling him I’d given it to him. He kept shaking his head. Then the penny dropped. There is an old boarding pass in the side pocket of the kindle cover and he wanted details of that to prove the kindle was mine. Was able to tell him it was Quantas Sydney to Adelaide and I got my kindle back.

I hung my handbag on the back of the door in the airport toilets. Because I also had hand baggage, I somehow forget to take my bag.

Some wonderful person handed it in, with my purse and passport present and correct! I didn't half get a shock when my name was read out over the tannoy, because I hadn't even realised I'd left my bag behind

I found someone's passport on a plane once, it was stuck between the seat and the plane wall. The attendant said it might have been there months!

Once separated from your passport, technically it should never be returned to you, just to the issuing passport office and destroyed and a new passport applied for. This is because the information on it could be used. It was very hard explaining to upset people why I was retaining and destroying their passport when I worked in the passport office.

Similar situations to this couple have happened during my time, passports were found on planes and retained then destroyed.

I feel sorry for them. They must have gone physically sick when they realised. For all we know they could have saved for years for that holiday.
If the plane was searched high and low with a tooth comb snd they werent found then. The only possible explanation is that they must have been stolen. Do planes not have CCTV.

Tell you what,though. It'd be bloody ironic and obviously great if they go home and discover they were in their hand luggage all the time.

The dog nearly ate DH's recently. Managed to get his desk drawer open as he'd left food in there, and emptied the contents out, including DH's passport. I was unbothered by that as I knew his passport had expired and not been replaced so was like "fuck it, corner of an old passport chewed so what."

He'd been organizing a surprise holiday for my 40th so had renewed his passport about a month before and it was his brand new one I didn't know he'd got that now has a small nibble mark out of the corner of it.

Apparently passports don't taste very nice.

I hadn't heard this news, but the exact same thing happened to me. My only excuse is that I was exhausted, long haul flight home, and I'd only been away 3 days. I left my paperback in the seat pocket, completely forgetting I'd put my passport in the pages.

I remembered the MOMENT I stepped off the plane.

I wasn't allowed back in until everyone had left and went on with the cleaning crew.

The book and passport had gone.

I kept going to customs, and they just waved me through... I think 20 years ago they didn't have quite the same worries, and I have a very strong English accent which might have helped.

Anyway, yes, probably really stupid, but even in my old age I'd rather be stupid that have DH and I wearing matching safety purses around our necks

The customs guy said there was zero chance of my getting it back. He was quite unsurprised by it all.

Tbh my DHs insistence on putting things in the front pocket drives me 😡

This! I never put anything of value in the seat pocket, I wasn't travelling with my husband hence him losing his iPad. Took him two weeks to tell me

Anyway, yes, probably really stupid, but even in my old age I'd rather be stupid that have DH and I wearing matching safety purses around our necks

You don't need matching safety purses around your neck to keep a passport safe

Oh, and someone once stole my cardigan. The steward put out at call and said " if anyone has" found" it, please just throw it forward into the aisle". It worked! This cardi came sailing through the air, landed just in front of her. I suppose they didn't want to risk her actually checking each seat.. I've been on alot of planes, and seen quite alot of odd things.

I always keep my passport in my handbag, and my handbag stays with me the whole time. Even then I regularly check that it's still there. Yes, I'm just a bit paranoid, because I know I'm quite scatterbrained at times.

A humorous story now. My parents were going on holiday and my DM remembered to pack the passports. But she didn't check to make sure that she'd taken the right ones. When she showed the passports at immigration, the officer looked at the passports and asked, 'Is your name (DSis's name)?'

Fin, a pp was being incredibly smug about never losing anything because they do this.. that's all!

(been a while but in my experience as airport transfer rep, stuff left on the plane is never seen again. no one has time to search even if it hasnt been nicked.

I got my Kindle back in Florence a few weeks ago . It's the only time I've ever had anything returned!

I’m amazed how flippant so many people are with their passports. It is a very valuable document. Would you put your credit card/cash in the front pocket of the seat on the plane?

Fin, a pp was being incredibly smug about never losing anything because they do this.. that's all!

Sorry, I missed that one!

I once left a paperback book in a seatback pocket on a plane, and realised as soon as I got to the bottom of the steps on leaving, but was refused re-entry to retrieve it. I actually think this is good security, rather than letting people roam around an empty plane.

The turnaround times is really fast. I can easily see how it could happen. DH works for an airline and has flown in the jump seat (google it, very cool!), sometimes he and the pilots don't even leave the plane. The cabin crew do a super quick clean, obviously just chucking rubbish, anything that shouldn't be there, in the rubbish (I doubt they take much notice tbh), then the next lot of passengers get on.

Oh, and someone once stole my cardigan.

I was reading this thread while DP was saying something about the USA, and when he asked if I'd heard him I replied: "Sorry, someone stole your what?" Because I had just read your post

They do of course remind passengers not to leave any personal belongings behind when leaving the plane. There's plenty of time to make sure you don't forget anything as well.

I'm quite often looking at ID documents that are suspected to be tampered with - you'd be surprised at how ingenious people can be. The new passports are more difficult to tamper with but not impossible and especially if used where scrutiny may not be very high. It doesn't matter how difficult the authorities make it to tamper with passports, the criminals will find ways around - there's too much money involved to not bother.

I left mine on the plane once. I’m normally really anal about checking and checking and making sure it’s in a zipped pocket etc. It was my first holiday with dp and he kind of took charge of the passports and boarding passports going through the airport. Got on the plane and I asked him to put passports in my bag and get kindle out before putting it in the locker. He must have just shoved it in the top as when I went to get it from my bag as we were walking through the tunnel off the plane it wasn’t there. Went back to the plane and they looked in the locker above our seats and luckily it was there.
Sounds like I was lucky they found it.

Lila - I’m not surprised, it was a VERY lovely cardi - worth stealing!