Beirut: A significant security breach at the Rafik Hariri International Airport in Beirut allowed a 12-year-old child from the Palestinian refugee camp of Burj Al Barajneh to board a Middle East Airlines flight for Istanbul, Turkey, on Friday.
Authorities arrested five police and General Security personnel on Saturday in connection with the bizarre incident, as State Commissioner to the Military Court, Judge Saqr Saqr, launched an investigation to determine how Khalid Al Shubti slipped from security, boarded the flight—in business class no less—and was only “detected” just before the MEA flight reached its destination. Saqr Saqr avowed that airport employees were “negligent” and that he planned to level such charges against the five.
Passengers who fly out from Beirut generally pass through five separate security points, including one before they enter the airport premises and a final examination of their documents by security at the departure lounge, before boarding flights.
According to a statement issued by the airport’s administration, the child sneaked through several checkpoints and managed to board the flight even though he was carrying neither a passport nor a boarding pass.
It was unclear who drove him to the airport or how he managed to avoid immigration queues that stamp documents and allow passengers to enter the duty-free zone.
Investigators believe Khalid attached himself to a large family, sneaked into the women’s queue and when he noticed that security agents were busy searching travelers, managed to cross several checkpoints.
According to an Al Safir report, the child claimed that his passport was with his mother whenever someone asked him for the document and that she was either “ahead [in the queue]… or would follow him.”
This was apparently Al Shubti’s answer to the flight attendant standing at the door of the Istanbul-bound MEA plane, “who asked him to wait at the door until his mother arrives.”
Al Safir claimed that the child “waited until she [the flight attendant] turned around and managed to enter the plane and sit on a seat before entering the plane’s lavatory and stayed there until takeoff,” which probably breached several flight protocols.
Cabin crew members only realised something was amiss when they conducted a head count just before landing in Turkey, as they found out they had an additional traveler on the plane, who was flown then back to Beirut on the return service.
