Crewmembers of a China Airlines (CAL, 中華航空) flight found an unauthorized passenger sleeping in the cabin crew lounge on board an aircraft while conducting a routine inspection before takeoff yesterday morning.
The Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA) said Flight CI-020 was scheduled to depart from Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport bound for New York via Osaka, Japan, at 8am.
Crewmembers found the woman in the cabin crew lounge at about 7am.
A preliminary investigation by the Aviation Police Office said that the woman, surnamed Lee (李), 48, took a cab and got off at the Chung Cheng Aviation Museum near the airport terminal in Taoyuan County at about midnight.
Lee walked to the airport terminal and entered the restricted zone through a 20cm to 30cm opening between the airport’s cement wall and barbed wire. She came across a motorized vehicle used by airport ground crew with the key in the ignition and drove it on a 1.8km taxiway to the D5 apron. She parked the vehicle and boarded the aircraft using the ladder on the jet bridge.
Police said Lee carried neither a passport nor a boarding pass.
She was sent to the Taoyuan Mental Hospital after a preliminary diagnosis by a doctor at the airport.
The CAA said aviation police were in the process of piecing the matter together.
A similar incident occurred in 2005, when a 24-year-old man was able to board an aircraft bound for Vietnam through the terminal without a passport or a boarding pass. He was not found until another passenger reported the seat appeared to have been double booked.
Article 7 of the Regulations on Safeguarding Civil Aviation Against Acts of Unlawful Interference (民用航空保安管理辦法) states that the owner or operator of an aircraft must close the cabin door or passenger boarding bridge when the aircraft is not on flight duty and no person is working inside the aircraft. It must also remove the mobile staircases and service ladders.
Violators can be fined between NT$30,000 and NT$150,000.
Lee also violated the same act for failing to apply with aviation police before entering the airport’s restricted areas, the Aviation Police Office said.
She could be fined between NT$5,000 and NT$25,000, the CAA said.
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