A “significant lapse in security” saw a man board a British Airways (BA) flight without a ticket, boarding pass or passport.
The unnamed individual waltzed through Heathrow Airport before stepping onto the 7.20am BA flight to Oslo, Norway on Saturday.
He tailgated other passengers to get through the gates into the security area and also managed to bypass further checks at the departure gate.
The unnamed man was arrested, and according to airport sources, he had passed through “full security screening” before reaching the gate.
He pretended to be with a family who passed through the final passport check at the gate, it is believed.
A passenger on the flight, Mike LaCorte, saw the entire incident from row one of the flight cabin.
“This chap moved around until the plane filled up. Then a member of the cabin crew went over to speak to them”, he told the Telegraph.
“It was very clear that this person didn’t have any boarding pass or anything at all.”
The man was escorted off the jet
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The individual was able to enter the security area by tailgating other passengers
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He described the man as white and “in his late twenties or early thirties, a scruffy solo traveller” who was wearing an “off-white tracksuit” and carrying a “small” rucksack.
In order to reach the queue for security checks, passengers must scan their boarding passes to get through the gates.
Sources said the man had tailgated his way through the automatic gates at Terminal Three’s security screening area.
He passed through security, meaning he was not detected carrying any banned items, before convincing a BA check-in agent he was a member of a family who had their passports and boarding passes inspected in the usual manner.
Passengers were forced to go through passport checks all over again
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Airport security, shortly followed by armed police, arrived and removed the man from the plane, Mr LaCorte said.
“The cabin crew came in and tried to map where the seats were that he was sitting at, and then searched the cabin overhead bins”, he said.
Genuine passengers were then forced to pass through security again while sniffer dogs searched the airliner.
“It was like, three hours”, he said.
“How did he get on in the first place? It’s the risk.”