Man in disguise boards international flight | Hacker News Reader

Man in disguise boards international flight

edition.cnn.com

57 pointsdave196717 comments

It seems that this person was trying to escape from China for some reason -- and all these newscasters can think about is terrorism and security.

He didn't get a bomb on the plane, it was a latex costume. And he didn't even use it to try and get into Canada, just out of HK. He's pretty awesome pulling all of this off.

>And he didn't even use it to try and get into Canada

But he did. He would have needed a visa to get on the flight to Canada (carriers are responsible for ensuring that border protections are enforced), and this was his circumvention.

Actually, he only needs a visa to enter the country. The Geneva Convention allows anyone to present at a border post and claim refugee protection (with a few exceptions, but visas aren't included in those).

There are various laws that require careers to prevent people without visas arriving at borders, but those are aimed at making it harder to ask for protection. He managed to work around those; mission accomplished.

You seem to be wording your reply as if you're somehow disagreeing with what I posted, and you've gotten the corresponding upvotes.

-He needs to set foot on actual Canadian soil to claim refugee status

-He can't walk to the border. He needs to make use of a boat or a plane

-Air carriers enforce requirements on behalf of the countries they fly to, like "you need a visa to go to Canada if you're Chinese". This is because countries like Canada like the concept of refugee protections more than the actual practice of them: they want to put barriers up to stop people from actually claiming it.

Bit of a conundrum there, no?

-So he used the ID of someone who wouldn't need a visa/passport, along with the mask, to essentially get past the barrier that the air carrier would not have brought him to Canada otherwise.

The original person claimed, wrongly, that " And he didn't even use it to try and get into Canada, just out of HK.", yet he used the mask to get into Canada by way of getting on an air carrier that wouldn't have let him on otherwise, at which point he was assured entry to Canada and consideration via the refugee program.

You are right. He needed a visa to get on the flight. However, my understanding of the refugee stuff is that one doesn't actually need to enter the country. You're not inside the country till after the border guard has waved you through; but you can still ask for protection while at the border. He's probably still in detention, which doesn't really count as being in the country in my book. He used the mask to try and get protection, not simply enter Canada. Very different motive.

This is descending into analty, so I'll stop now :)

Making a latex mask matching the credentials of the original passenger seems high cost/effort. It'll be interesting to see the back story here.

There has been a refugee claim, but no talk of arresting the original passenger. I wonder if this is the case of someone helping a dissident to get out of China.

Dup: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1872306

also: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1872990

and: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1872289

It seems that timing is everything. BTW, I find "Dup" comments valuable when the original had commentary we would otherwise miss or when the original was deleted by mods. This appears to be the case with your second link, so thank you.

However, if the original failed to get votes and is reposted later, I'm personally all for it. HN's algorithm is rather capricious, trying again may garner interest, and that's a good thing for HN.

Example:

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1803432 and http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1801632

I agree entirely. Ideally there would be a way of simply merging items to get all the references to the same story from different sources, and combine the comment threads.

But that won't happen any time soon. Cross-referencing is the best we can manage for now.

What I'm really curious about is why he took it off mid-flight. Obviously it's a latex costume and a long flight, probably extremely uncomfortable but think about it, how is the person in the seat next to him not going to notice?

Given the refugee claim, it might have a lot to do with the fact he wanted to make no false claim on entry. Also the reaction of a passenger is likely to be more acceptable than if you attempt this at the airport and get noticed.

I'd really like to hear what caused this stunt, though.

Prima facie, this is a cool way to sneak into a country. Extra cool points if he had crafted Krueger attachments to his hands. He should be let in on the grounds that this is exactly the kind of innovative thinking that this country requires.

The big question is what new procedures will TSA dream up?

Everyone will have to get backscattered AND felt up to ensure they're not wearing latex.

The should have taken the costume when he boarded the flight, not mid flight...

He should have gone to the bathroom right after he put his bags so no one would remember when he got back to his seat...

Is it against the rules or law to wear a disguise assuming you're not breaking any other rules or laws? It seems like he wasn't impersonating another specific person.

I wonder if the full-body scanners would have caught this.

The things people will do for frequent flier miles...

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