RAISE YOUR TRAYS, AND NO SHAPE-SHIFTING!
Travel can really change a person.
UP IN THE AIR
Imagine you’re on a plane from Hong Kong flying to Canada and there’s an elderly white male passenger sitting next to you. He’s wearing a flat cap, brown cardigan sweater, and wire-rimmed spectacles. He gets up to use the restroom. No big deal. But then he returns to his seat as a young, Asian male. The old man who had been seated next to you is nowhere to be found.
You did notice the young-looking hands of your former seatmate, and now you wonder: Could the young man have transformed?
On October 29, 2010, this exact scenario happened on an Air Canada flight from Hong Kong to Vancouver. Flight staff noticed the transformation and notified authorities on the ground to be ready for an arrest. Upon landing, the passenger was taken off the plane by Border Services Officers. The man then asked for refugee status.
A BAG MR. ROGERS WOULD ENVY
When security questioned the asylum-seeker about wearing a disguise, he initially denied it. Upon searching his bags, however, officers found a peel-off silicon face and neck mask as well as the cap, cardigan, and eyeglasses of the old man. The status of the young refugee is still unknown.
A CASE OF FORSAKEN IDENTITY
Air Canada spokesman Peter Fitzpatrick said that multiple identity checks have to be completed in Hong Kong International Airport for anyone to board a plane, so the disguise that this guy was using must have been quite good. This passenger was able to board using someone else’s boarding pass.
It is believed that he somehow swapped boarding passes with another person, but further details have not been revealed. The question remains: Who was that masked old man?
The word “cyberspace” was coined by Canadian writer William Gibson.