British holidaymakers have queried Portugal’s ‘security levels’ after a 40-year-old man was able to fly out of Faro airport on an easyJet flight using his brother’s passport.
Steven Wilson picked up 43-year-old brother Carl ’s passport by mistake, but he and his wife are wondering how he managed to get through four checkpoints without anyone noticing – particularly as the passport bore a different name to that on his boarding card, and the photograph showed a face completely unalike his own.
Wife Michelle has told the couple’s local paper that the incident “raised serious questions at a time when the UK threat level for terrorism is classified as ‘severe’ – meaning an attack is highly likely”.
“My husband only realised when he arrived home and I took the passport off him to return it for safe keeping”, she told the Liverpool Echo.
“In light of recent events in Paris and Belgium, I assumed airport security was a top priority within Europe. Obviously not.
“The names were different. Surely that should have raised some alarm bells?”
Michelle told the Echo that she has contacted easyJet, Liverpool’s John Lennon Airport, UK Border Force and Portuguese immigration officials to express her concerns and that “urgent investigations are now said to be underway”.
She added: “I explained that I will be taking this matter further and going public with regard to the lack of security and diligence currently operating in European airports.
“It’s awful. It’s not just the fact his name is on the boarding card and it’s different to the one on the passport. He doesn’t even look like his brother!
“They look completely different. I can’t believe it. I don’t want them to be able to bury this”, she added, stressing that her husband had been travelling on his own.
“You would have thought security would pay more attention to a lone passenger”.
Brother Carl has since had to go through the rigmarole of declaring his passport ‘lost’ and getting an emergency travel document, while the Echo said calls to the airport and easyJet have so far got nowhere.
“A Border Force spokesperson said they do not comment on individual cases”, said the paper, while “nobody from easyJet was available to comment”.
