Need help for a story.

raja said:

Hi,

I need to find out what the procedures were for the airlines prior to 9/11. Basically, I need a plausible way someone could be listed as being on a plane, but in fact was not. Again this story takes place prior to 9/11.
If anyone knows, I would greatly appreciate any and all help.

Roger Baker

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There are two tickets; one for your mystery man, and one for a decoy.

The decoy shows his ticket on the way in, stops halfway through the tunnel and then backtracks out. ("I Left something on the table, excuse me, excuse me.")

Then he gets with the next group, and shows the other ticket on his way in. The likelyhood of the person noticing he'd already shown a ticket is close to nil. Even if that person DID notice, she wouldn't be likely to do anything about it; everyone's in a hurry during boarding.

Hope that helps, credit me if you use it.

Perhaps your character and another might 'bump' into one another and get their tickets mixed up? Then when your character isn't on the plane, but his/her ticket IS...

Ol' Fashioned Girl said:

Perhaps your character and another might 'bump' into one another and get their tickets mixed up? Then when your character isn't on the plane, but his/her ticket IS...

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No, because the seat numbers would be mixed up... The person would invariably check his seat number before sitting down, and then realize that it was wrong.

Of course, that might NOT happen if the person couldn't remember the original seat number or if they were similar numbers, (D-2, E-2) but there are also a lot of different ways this would be noticed.

D-1? D-11? Darn! I could've sworn I was in row 11... must be so tired I'm seein' double...

Buy a round trip ticket but don't get on the plane. Prior to 911, I don't believe the passenger manifests were as closely monitored as now.

I remember hearing buzz about it because when planes crashed, it was always a toss up as to how many and who was actually on the plane.

You might get more definitive responses in the Research Forum. I'll give a mod a ringy-dingy for you.

Moved to Story Research as requested.

I can verify that even pre 9/11, if you checked luggage, they checked to make sure you boarded the plane.

(Sat on a plane for an hour in Edmonton, Alberta because someone didn't board the plane after checking in. The moment her bag was found and pulled from the plane, she showed up, and boarded to a round of sarcastic applause. Fun times).

Dunno if that helps much....

M