Amanda Soh - Dad flies off using son's passport

In his hurry to catch a flight at Changi Airport's Budget Terminal yesterday morning, retiree Ang Heng Soon, 61, grabbed the wrong passport and left home. He took his 39-year-old son's passport. They had left their passports on the dining table, because the son was also flying from Changi Airport. The father's mistake, and how he cleared all security checks at the airport and flew to Vietnam, led to a long day for both. Even with the wrong passport, Mr Ang first checked in at the Tiger Airways counter for his flight to Ho Chi Minh City, where he was headed for a six-day holiday. He next got past the security check by Certis Cisco officers at the entrance to the restricted passenger area. Then he ran into problems, failing repeatedly to scan his fingerprint at the immigration Automated Clearance System. Noticing his difficulty, an Immigration and Checkpoints Authority officer directed him to a lane for manual clearance. There, an officer cleared him to leave Singapore, and he boarded his plane. Mr Ang told The Straits Times he realised his mistake only during the flight. As soon as he arrived at the Ho Chi Minh City airport at 8.15am, he owned up to immigration authorities there and they put him on the same plane back to Singapore. Around that time at Changi Airport's Terminal 1, his son Vincent, an electronics company sales and marketing executive, also discovered the mix-up. He was waiting to check in for his flight to Hong Kong when he realised that he had his father's passport. He cancelled his flight and went to Tiger Airways' office in the Budget Terminal, where he learnt that his father was heading back. Father and son were reunited at close to noon. Both made fresh arrangements and flew off to their respective destinations later in the day, correct passports in hand. By then, it was too late for Mr Vincent Ang to make it to his business meeting in Hong Kong.

Personal View :
Having this security lapse in Singapore will give a very negative impact on Singapore's security system. If this man happen to be a terrorist, he could just plant a bomb in the airport itself. The immigration officer who looked at his passport and did the 'face-to-face verification' let him through because he bore a resemblance to the photo in the passport. The officer should not have only relied only on this but should have checked his boarding pass with his passport.