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ALLOWED TO FLY...WITH THE WRONG PASSPORT

Hazel Ellaby: Sailed through passport control checks

Thursday July 24,2008

By Paul Broster

Comment Speech Bubble Have your say(7)

AN inquiry was launched last night into how a holidaymaker was able to pass through four security checkpoints using a stranger’s passport.

Hazel Ellaby, 29, was not stopped, despite showing airport staff a photograph of a woman called Kirstie Willett.

She had unwittingly been given Miss Willett’s passport by mistake when she checked out of her hotel in Turkey.

But immigration guards at two checkpoints in Bodrum airport failed to notice, allowing her to board an XL Airlines flight.

She also sailed through two passport control checks at Manchester Airport.

It is absolutely ridiculous

Hazel Ellaby

The mother of one – who is nine years older than Miss Willett – only realised the error when she arrived home in Ashton-under-Lyne, Greater Manchester.

She said: “It is absolutely ridiculous. Airport security is a massive issue but no one noticed I had the wrong passport.

“I keep thinking what would have happened if I had been stopped at the gate after passing through the airport using the wrong passport. I could have been locked up in a Turkish jail.”

Miss Ellaby spent a week with boyfriend Martin Jess, 47, at the Avsar Hotel in Altinkum, where they briefly met Miss Willett, from Sheffield, next to the pool.

Miss Willett, who is still at the hotel on a two-week break, said: “I am livid that this has been allowed to happen.” The pair now plan to arrange an exchange, with Miss Ellaby sending Miss Willett’s passport back to Turkey.

XL Airlines said the firm would contact Bodrum airport to raise concerns about ground staff.

The UK Border Agency has launched a probe into the blunders. A spokesman said: “We will speak to the airline to determine how the individual managed to board the plane and leave Turkey.

“We will also speak to the officers in Manchester to establish the circumstances of her arrival.”

OH! I CAUGHT IT OUT BY HAVING A QUESTION MARK ADDED TO THE FORBIDDEN WORD.

25.07.08, 12:37am

With regards to this article...

• Posted by: Tristram • Report Comment

I SAY!

25.07.08, 12:36am

This automatic editing seems a bit strong. Does this forum exclude every word with the letters **** in it? For example; p****, gl****, class?

• Posted by: Tristram • Report Comment

DUMB BROAD

25.07.08, 12:32am

I agree with the previous postings. Was she drunk when she took her passport to the airport? With all the millions that p**** through all the time, there is going to be the odd slip up.

The main thing is that she was security checked and she was not carrying a bomb.

• Posted by: Tristram • Report Comment

FAME AT THE COST OF OTHERS

24.07.08, 1:38pm

Yes, it is unfortunate that the mistake was not spotted by security & others including the dim passenger. So would she have preferred to have been denied boarding of the flight & forced to buy another ticket to fly later through her own stupid mistake. Probably not. However, for her few minutes of fame in her boring life she seeks to create fuss at every opportunity. One can only hope she sticks to her back garden in future.

• Posted by: Lyfordcay • Report Comment

NO TROUBLE AT ALL

24.07.08, 12:22pm

I have ever only had boring trips between countries.
I'd love to be able to boast about mistakes like these.

• Posted by: elevengoalposts • Report Comment

MANY YEARS AGO...

24.07.08, 8:10am

I travelled all the way from Northern Ireland to Singapore via Heathrow, Kuwait and Ceylon without a Passport in 1964. I was 16 at the time. I did have a Royal Navy identity-card so I waved that at any officials who got in my way. It worked a treat but I would be surprised if it worked today.

• Posted by: IvorMoan • Report Comment