31 October 2012

Investigation launched after UK visa bypass blunder at Edinburgh Airport

Edinburgh Airport has confirmed an investigation is taking place into how a planeload of passengers was allowed to pass through the airport without passing through UK immigration control.

UK visa

An easyJet flight of passengers were escorted through Edinburgh Airprot without passing through security checks.

The easyJet flight from Krakow landed on Monday and passengers were guided through the terminal by a handling agent. However, instead of being taken to immigration control where any UK visa and passports would be checked, they were led through a wrong door, bypassing all security checks.

The mistake was quickly identified and the passengers were then subjected to the appropriate checks but the incident has already sparked uproar.

"Perhaps skipping passport control is an easyJet extra," said Liberal Democrat MP Mike Crockart. "We can be thankful the flight came from a European Union partner and therefore posed a minimal security threat, but as Edinburgh grows and operates to more destinations it will need to ensure mistakes like this never happen again."

One Conservative councillor said 'the onus is on the airport' and not the airline to prevent a repeat occurrence of an incident she described as 'very worrying'.

A spokesman for Edinburgh Airport said: “I can confirm that a group of passengers were exited via a wrong door. All were quickly identified and processed.

“We have launched an investigation to understand how this happened and to ensure it does not happen again.”

"Security at all Scottish airports was considerably tightened following the Glasgow Airport attack in 2007. Countless thousands has been spent ensuring these places are bullet and bomb proof so it beggars belief that this was allowed to happen," said one Edinburgh Airport source.

"You can't people waltzing willy-nilly through an international border."


The UK Visa Bureau is an independent immigration consultancy specialising in helping people prepare for their UK Ancestry Visa application.

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