Another Aircraft Returns
The wrong passenger on an Asiana Airlines flight caused the flight to return to the departing airport. Two male passengers with Korean citizenship changed their plane tickets on purpose right before boarding, and weren't caught until the plane was in the air.
Asiana Airlines announced that an Asiana airplane returned to Hong Kong an hour after finding the wrong passenger aboard on the OJ722 flight, which left Hong Kong at 2:15 p.m. (Korean time) on March 16 for Incheon. The passenger was supposed to take a Jeju Air flight from Hong Kong to Incheon, which was to leave at 2:55 p.m.
Asiana Airlines realized the fact after Jeju Air notified its partner airline. Jeju Air announced that it had stopped a passenger, who had a passport and a ticket under another person’s name, from boarding, and contacted the airport police.
The two passengers, who were actually booked on Asiana Airlines and Jeju Air, had known each other, planned to exchange their flights, and checked their luggage. After passing the security checks, they exchanged their tickets in front of the gate.
An official from the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport said, “We will find out the accurate details of the case and take action. They were trying to exchange flights. This was possible because the airlines rarely check passports when boarding.”
Some say that Asiana Airlines exposed its weakness in security checks through the incident. Asiana Airlines said, “It seems there was a mistake in the process of checking passports and tickets before boarding.”
The two airlines handed over the two passengers to the local police.
Asiana Airlines flew the plane to Incheon at 7 p.m. again. The plane with 259 passengers arrived at the airport four hours later than they were scheduled to do so.