Passenger: I Warned Crew About 'Two-Faced' Flier

But no one paid any attention, scared traveler complains
By Mary Papenfuss,  Newser Staff
Posted Nov 9, 2010 2:45 AM CST
Updated Nov 9, 2010 4:00 AM CST
Passenger: I Warned Crew About 'Two-Faced' Flier
This Air Canada passenger boarded his flight in Hong Kong looking like the elderly man on the right, and disembarked looking like a young Chines male on the left.   (AP Photo/Canada Border Services Agency)

A passenger warned the flight crew about a disguised "two-faced" flier who slipped on board and rattled security staffs around the world—but they shrugged off her concerns, she says. Passenger Nuray Kurtur-Balas said she immediately spotted something amiss and feared the 22-year-old, dressed as an old man, planned "to harm" the plane. "It wasn't a real person's skin. It looked plastic," she told CNN. " I said to the flight attendant, 'Did you check out that person's hands? They seem like they belong to a 20-year-old kid. There are no wrinkles.' She said 'good observation.'"

A second flight attendant said he'd look into it, and a third she told responded that the other passenger may have a "medical condition." Even her husband told her she was "watching too much CSI" when she told him at home. An Air Canada spokesman said the crew did what was necessary to have the questionable passenger met by security agents when he disembarked, though that was long after he shucked his disguise. The Chinese traveler is seeking refugee status and is not believed linked to any terrorist organization.
(More Chinese stories.)

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