Quote of the Day: Boarding Pass Scanners Are Just “Beedoop Machines”

Yesterday’s big social media event was a series of tweets from supermodel Chrissy Teigen, who was on board an ANA flight to Tokyo when it suddenly turned around and headed back to Los Angeles. The reason, it turned out, was a manifest problem: the plane had two passengers who shouldn’t have been on board. One was supposed to be on a United flight and the other on a different ANA flight.

Quite so, except that this applies to both passengers. If the boarding passes were scanned, they should have immediately flagged the passengers. So what happened?

Also, what seats did they sit in? Did their assigned seats on the other flights just happen to be open on this flight? Did they get into an argument with anyone about whose seat was whose? Shouldn’t that have tipped someone off?

I don’t really care that much about the celebrity tweets, but I am curious about how this happened. Between the scanner, the boarding pass check at the airplane door, and the likelihood of a seat conflict, it sure seems like this shouldn’t be able to happen even once, let alone twice. The explanation, when we eventually get it, should be fascinating.

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BEFORE YOU CLICK AWAY!

“Lying.” “Disgusting.” “Scum.” “Slime.” “Corrupt.” “Enemy of the people.” Donald Trump has always made clear what he thinks of journalists. And it’s plain now that his administration intends to do everything it can to stop journalists from reporting things they don’t like—which is most things that are true.

No one gets to tell Mother Jones what to publish or not publish, because no one owns our fiercely independent newsroom. But that also means we need to directly raise the resources it takes to keep our journalism alive. There’s only one way for that to happen, and it’s readers like you stepping up. Please help with a donation today if you can—even a few bucks will make a real difference. A monthly gift would be incredible.

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