

Man in disguise boards international flight - dave1967
http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/americas/11/04/canada.disguised.passenger/index.html

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nostromo
It seems that this person was trying to escape from China for some reason --
and all these newscasters can think about is terrorism and security.

He didn't get a bomb on the plane, it was a latex costume. And he didn't even
use it to try and get into Canada, just out of HK. He's pretty awesome pulling
all of this off.

~~~
ergo98
>And he didn't even use it to try and get into Canada

But he did. He would have needed a visa to get on the flight to Canada
(carriers are responsible for ensuring that border protections are enforced),
and this was his circumvention.

~~~
villiros
Actually, he only needs a visa to enter the country. The Geneva Convention
allows anyone to present at a border post and claim refugee protection (with a
few exceptions, but visas aren't included in those).

There are various laws that require careers to prevent people without visas
arriving at borders, but those are aimed at making it harder to ask for
protection. He managed to work around those; mission accomplished.

~~~
ergo98
You seem to be wording your reply as if you're somehow disagreeing with what I
posted, and you've gotten the corresponding upvotes.

-He needs to set foot on actual Canadian soil to claim refugee status

-He can't walk to the border. He needs to make use of a boat or a plane

-Air carriers enforce requirements on behalf of the countries they fly to, like "you need a visa to go to Canada if you're Chinese". This is because countries like Canada like the _concept_ of refugee protections more than the actual practice of them: they want to put barriers up to stop people from actually claiming it.

Bit of a conundrum there, no?

-So he used the ID of someone who _wouldn't_ need a visa/passport, along with the mask, to essentially get past the barrier that the air carrier would not have brought him to Canada otherwise.

The original person claimed, wrongly, that " And he didn't even use it to try
and get into Canada, just out of HK.", yet he used the mask _to get into
Canada_ by way of getting on an air carrier that wouldn't have let him on
otherwise, at which point he was assured entry to Canada and consideration via
the refugee program.

~~~
villiros
You are right. He needed a visa to get on the flight. However, my
understanding of the refugee stuff is that one doesn't actually need to enter
the country. You're not inside the country till after the border guard has
waved you through; but you can still ask for protection while at the border.
He's probably still in detention, which doesn't really count as being in the
country in my book. He used the mask to try and get protection, not simply
enter Canada. Very different motive.

This is descending into analty, so I'll stop now :)

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adolph
Making a latex mask matching the credentials of the original passenger seems
high cost/effort. It'll be interesting to see the back story here.

~~~
raganwald
There has been a refugee claim, but no talk of arresting the original
passenger. I wonder if this is the case of someone helping a dissident to get
out of China.

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RiderOfGiraffes
Dup: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1872306>

also: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1872990>

and: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1872289>

~~~
raganwald
It seems that timing is everything. BTW, I find "Dup" comments valuable when
the original had commentary we would otherwise miss or when the original was
deleted by mods. This appears to be the case with your second link, so thank
you.

However, if the original failed to get votes and is reposted later, I'm
personally all for it. HN's algorithm is rather capricious, trying again may
garner interest, and that's a good thing for HN.

Example:

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1803432> and
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1801632>

~~~
RiderOfGiraffes
I agree entirely. Ideally there would be a way of simply merging items to get
all the references to the same story from different sources, and combine the
comment threads.

But that won't happen any time soon. Cross-referencing is the best we can
manage for now.

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twymer
What I'm really curious about is why he took it off mid-flight. Obviously it's
a latex costume and a long flight, probably extremely uncomfortable but think
about it, how is the person in the seat next to him not going to notice?

Given the refugee claim, it might have a lot to do with the fact he wanted to
make no false claim on entry. Also the reaction of a passenger is likely to be
more acceptable than if you attempt this at the airport and get noticed.

I'd really like to hear what caused this stunt, though.

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akadien
Prima facie, this is a cool way to sneak into a country. Extra cool points if
he had crafted Krueger attachments to his hands. He should be let in on the
grounds that this is exactly the kind of innovative thinking that this country
requires.

The big question is what new procedures will TSA dream up?

~~~
count
Everyone will have to get backscattered AND felt up to ensure they're not
wearing latex.

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bond
The should have taken the costume when he boarded the flight, not mid
flight...

He should have gone to the bathroom right after he put his bags so no one
would remember when he got back to his seat...

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baddox
Is it against the rules or law to wear a disguise assuming you're not breaking
any other rules or laws? It seems like he wasn't impersonating another
specific person.

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sz
I wonder if the full-body scanners would have caught this.

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andrenotgiant
The things people will do for frequent flier miles...

