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Comment by Svip | Hacker News Reader

The ground crew that check people's papers during boarding are not the same crew who are on the flight. Copenhagen Airport has a separate area for non-Schengen flights. He may "simply" have arrived from a non-Schengen origin and then avoided leaving through passport control and gone on a different flight, somehow.

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> and gone on a different flight, somehow

At every airport I've been to, the entire barrier to entry for various jet bridges is one or two people keeping an eye on the crowd. I can imagine a lot of scenarios where the entryway ends up unattended, even if just for thirty seconds.

I once arrived in Vancouver on an international flight from Europe and somehow they messed up the "routing" of passengers and everyone just walked out to the baggage carousels for domestic flights without going through customs at all! After a few minutes the employees realized what happened and they just brought over a few custom inspectors to the "exits" (it was really just a low wall with plants separating the carousels and the doors to the outside) and checked passports of people leaving, but a number had already left and they didn't even have a computer or anything, they just manually checked the passports. It's possible they only let Canadian through this way and directed foreign passports back to a real customs area, I don't exactly remember. It was pretty bizarre and only about 10 years ago now. Mistakes do happen!

It's possible to get into the UK without a (UK) passport check if you go via Ireland. They treat the Dublin ferries and planes like domestic flights, they still check the passport at boarding and one presumes with it being computerised they still know you've entered the country (unless of course someone does what this guy just did).

There were signs up in Manchester that if you didn't have a UK / Irish passport (we travel on AU passport) that you're supposed to approach someone, but no-one guarding the exit. Ha ha honour system.

Doubly so if you drive across the border from Republic of Ireland to Northern Ireland, since they're legally not allowed to based on the Good Friday agreement.

In some ways this is less what we want because as tourists that spend a bunch of time in the UK I actually want someone to tell me I'm complying with the law.

You say they check passports between Dublin and GB, but I'm a Northern Irish guy who took the car over the ferry from Belfast to Stranraer then back from Holyhead to Dublin, I didn't even think about bringing my passport with me. The height of customs was on the Dublin from Holyhead side, they got me to roll down my window and asked me what my nationality was.

Ah but I don't do a good Irish accent.

I was saying the flight did barely. Not the ferry to Holyhead

They do check your passport coming into Ireland. I think the CTA means reciprocal checks of equal passport standards so Ireland wouldn't admit anybody that Britain didn't want to allow in (technically).

That doesn't really apply since Ireland has different visa requirements to the UK. As a South African national I can enter Ireland without a visa, whereas I do need one to enter the UK.

On most if not all flights I can recall I've ever taken I see same people doing check-in and taking baggage and then standing on the gate, often its the same person who took the baggage and letting me through for smaller/low cost airlines. This covers Europe but also some other parts of the world, albeit of course its not exhaustive coverage.

The article mentions that he might have been in Kiel, Germany recently.

And getting into the non-Schengen area via another flight would require a proper passport and visa as the flight would originate in a non-Schengen country.

Or he might have been going to Kiel, and came in from an non-Schengen origin to catch a connecting flight in Copenhagen to Kiel.

Kiel has a tiny airport that doesn't have any scheduled services, but they have a large port with ferry and cruise terminals.

But flying from say the UK to Denmark would require him to have a passport and a visa (checked in the UK).

More likely he flew from Israel to Denmark given his documents, but when he said he left his passport on the plane, it might have been the first plane.

> The ground crew that check people's papers during boarding are not the same crew who are on the flight

Sometimes they are, sometimes they aren't

Maybe you'll divorce at 40, maybe you'll dance the 'Funky Chicken' on your 75th wedding anniversary

If you manage to do both that would be very impressive

You can divorce someone and re-marry them soon after and not break the counting cycle.

Unless you are male in which case it's normal in quite a few jurisdictions

To live to 115? And be fit enough to dance the funky chicken?

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polygyny

> He may "simply" have arrived from a non-Schengen origin

Wouldn't he still need a passport to get on this first flight anyway?

Maybe he knows someone working at an airport

Blowing the dust of the ol' tin foil hat and dialing conspiracy theory a notch or three... the article is so vague on details that I presume that this was no accident and actually a coordinated effort to get this person in the US. Whether the task was successful maybe we'll learn in a decade or so.

But usually you need to go through security again even if re-connecting to a Non-Schengen flight destination. I've experienced this in several schengen airports (but not specifically CPH)

First thing they should do is check the airport cameras (edit: they did), and given that this person has identification from some countries I'd say you have a good clue of what has happened

"and street maps of “an unknown foreign city.”" Humm I think there are certain people that might help with this

> But usually you need to go through security again even if re-connecting to a Non-Schengen flight destination.

No you don't. Only if you went to a different terminal or something. You can very easily stay in the airside area (indeed this is exactly what you're meant to do if you're taking a connecting flight).

As far as I know (having gone through a security training to get an airport pass): it depends.

There are mutual security standards audits and inspections after passing them one airport (or aviation authority) accepts the other one’s security screenings and then you don’t need to go through security again at the intermediate airport.

So traveling quite a bit you will find weird things.

It depends massively on the airport layout. If you transit domestic to international at Heathrow Terminal 5 you don’t need to re pass security, just a boarding pass check and can stay in the sterile zone. If you fly out of another terminal though you have to transfer to the airside non sterile zone.

If you transit at Helsinki from the U.K. to the far east then no security check needed, but if you transit from Helsinki through london to Africa you do go through security

Some airports just do security at the gate. Some airports have multiple security at the gate - the airport/country, then a second security check by the airline.

Then there’s the spot checks, I’ve been through a second check occasionally flying out of the U.K. (MAN and LHR) to the US, normally don’t get it, but sometimes do.

There are no hard and fast rules.

"No you don't" is not the case in neither FRA, CDG or AMS, I assume CPH is the same, though I never did this specifically at this airport - you have to go through x-ray and sometimes there are some boarding pass or passport checks

But if you have specific experience in this airport I'm all ears

https://www.cph.dk/en/practical/cph%20map

Arriving passengers end up in the general departure/arrivals hall, either inside or outside the Schengen zone depending on where they originate. There's no security check for transferring passengers.

Not sure about Copenhagen, but transit terminals are a thing in Europe. There you do not, legally, enter the coubtry, your baggage is transferred to your connecting flight and you don't show your passport to anyone. Besides the airline personal checking your boarding pass and passport to make sure you are on the correct flight and are actually who the ticket says you are.

Weird. Someone at Copenhagen airport will have to answer some rather unpleasant questions about this.

See my other comment, you don't usually disembark in the terminal, but in a separate area

This might be true in some cases but it is usually not the case in the Schengen airports I know

There usually aren't any controlls between non-Schengen flights, arribing and departing at the same terminal, in FRA and MUC. Pretty much depends on airport layout, whether or not there are seperate terminals. If not, you have at least a passport control.

In FRA I did have to go through X-ray again, not sure someone checked the boarding card though

(and sometimes there is an extra passport check at the gates - depending of the origin)

As I said, depends on where flight originate and where they go. And to / from which terminal. For sure so you can change flights at MUC and FRA without passing security or border controls.

Yeah that makes sense

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