According to reports, the unidentified boy with no travel documents managed to make it all the way onto the plane before cabin crew asked to see his boarding pass to show him to his seat. When the boy, suspected to be Dutch, refused to cooperate with cabin crew, he was removed from the flight by police officers. Due to the incident, the remaining passengers were forced to deplane and undergo another security check, causing the flight to be delayed by around five hours. Police suspect that the boy may have arrived at Heathrow from another destination via plane, where he was supposed to board another flight.
According to Rachel Richardson, a passenger on the flight, the whole ordeal was very frustrating.
“The boy would not speak to the cabin crew, and they were asking if anybody spoke Dutch. He would not help them understand where his bags were, so the whole aircraft had to be cleared, which meant we were almost more than four hours delayed taking off. It was very frustrating,” she told the Telegraph.
“We are working with our police colleagues and British Airways to understand how an unauthorized passenger boarded the incorrect aircraft,” a Heathrow Airport spokesperson told the Telegraph. “The individual did not represent a security risk, and, purely as a precaution, the aircraft in question was re-screened and has since departed. We apologize for the disruption and will continue working closely with the authorities and our airline partners to keep the airport safe.”
British Airways also released a statement, apologizing for the delay.
“We have apologized to our customers for the delay to their flight after an issue during boarding. The safety and security of our customers and crew is always our top priority, and everyone who had boarded the aircraft had been subject to security checks. We conducted additional precautionary screening as soon as this issue came to light, and we are assisting the police with their enquiries,” the carrier said in a statement.
British Airways did not immediately respond to Sputnik’s request for comment.