# Delta screwed up big time at JFK!



## jis (Feb 26, 2014)

http://nypost.com/2014/02/25/delta-passengers-skip-past-immigration-after-airline-gaffe/



> Some passengers on a Delta London to New York flight Monday night never went through immigration or customs – because their jet landed in the wrong place in a gaffe that raised security fears.
> 
> Passenger Andrew Rostron – husband of a CBS employee – told the network that people aboard Delta Flight 3 from Heathrow Airport wound up in an area of Terminal 4 near a domestic baggage claim about 8:30 p.m.
> 
> ...


Now they can advertize "Fly Delta and avoid Customs Checks"...... Juuust kidding.

I suppose they face a hefty fine from DHS and a few stern warnings go into a few employees files.


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## Ryan (Feb 26, 2014)

Oops!


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## railiner (Feb 26, 2014)

In all the years of international flights, it is quite likely that this has occured before, but, yes......quite a serious (and ultimately costly) infraction....


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## the_traveler (Feb 26, 2014)

54 passengers on a London to New York flight? :huh:


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## jis (Feb 26, 2014)

Not unusual this time of the year. This is very low travel season. Great for getting upgrades 

BTW, when I flew from JFK to London Heathrow the week after 9/11 there were only 6 passengers on a Virgin Atlantic 747! We were all promoted to Upper Class complements of Sir Branson!


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## Ryan (Feb 26, 2014)

My wife flew home from Japan that same week - didn't get upgraded, but everyone did grab a bank of center seats for themselves and sack out.


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## fairviewroad (Feb 27, 2014)

That is certainly an Oops on the part of Delta but any passenger who left the airport without checking in with Customs

has committed their own Oops. To quote US CBP:

_Failure to enter through an open staffed port is considered an illegal entry and can result to you being fined and removed from the United States._

It is similar to points along the US/Canada border where one can simply walk across. You are still legally required to report to Customs even if

no one "makes" you.

Of course, if you are a US Citizen you cannot be removed. But you can still be fined. And since in the case of this flight, they would have

an exact record of who was on board upon departure from LHR, and they could cross-check that with a list of people who were ultimately

processed upon arrival at JFK, it would be relatively easy to figure out who skipped out on their legal obligations. Will they chase them down and

fine/deport them? Maybe, maybe not. But the bottom line is that if this happens to you, you should definitely not consider it a gift and instead

make the effort to enter "correctly."


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## Devil's Advocate (Feb 27, 2014)

fairviewroad said:


> Of course, if you are a US Citizen you cannot be removed.


Says who?

Keep in mind that we already know US Citizens are ending up in modern gulags and being targeted by weaponized drone strikes courtesy of our own government. Until you clear customs and immigration you have few if any legal protections and have little if any standing to challenge your treatment, up to and including indefinite detention, torture, or even death. It's 2014 and many of the fundamental protections we thought were enshrined in law have already been proven as unenforceable or even imaginary.


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## fairviewroad (Feb 27, 2014)

Devil's Advocate said:


> fairviewroad said:
> 
> 
> > Of course, if you are a US Citizen you cannot be removed.
> ...


Fine. US citizens can and are deported. That simply further proves my point that it's not a good idea to leave the airport without clearing customs.


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## Green Maned Lion (Feb 27, 2014)

You know, some people are very confused when confronted with a huge airport. I'm sure that some of them would be adequately confused to not realize they needed to go through customs, especially if they never checked any baggage and so it would never occur to them that such a screw up COULD occur.


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## jis (Feb 27, 2014)

It should be fun to watch how DHS handles this. At least for the US citizens involved there may be a bit of falling on their own swords involved, specially if said citizens have marshaled their lawyers and Congresscritters. DHS failing to guard the borders and entry points. No wonder Mr. Holder has been feeling dizzy this morning


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## Devil's Advocate (Feb 27, 2014)

Green Maned Lion said:


> You know, some people are very confused when confronted with a huge airport. I'm sure that some of them would be adequately confused to not realize they needed to go through customs, especially if they never checked any baggage and so it would never occur to them that such a screw up COULD occur.


I cannot even fathom the level of cluelessness required to completely miss something like that.


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## fairviewroad (Feb 27, 2014)

Devil's Advocate said:


> Green Maned Lion said:
> 
> 
> > You know, some people are very confused when confronted with a huge airport. I'm sure that some of them would be adequately confused to not realize they needed to go through customs, especially if they never checked any baggage and so it would never occur to them that such a screw up COULD occur.
> ...


In general, I think you're right. This wasn't some podunk puddle-hopper flight, this was a long-haul international flight from Heathrow, an airport not for the faint of heart. And presumably the airline crew handed out customs forms, so people would have been clued in that something was expected of them. It's unlikely any of these folks were inexperienced international travelers.

Of course, if I exited an international flight directly into the domestic terminal I wouldn't specifically know HOW to present myself to border control. You can't simply walk in. And, if someone was used to flying into the US from a pre-clearance airport such as Toronto or Dublin, they wouldn't be familiar with the concept of clearing customs and immigration upon arrival in the States.


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## Green Maned Lion (Feb 27, 2014)

Please, when I was a lad I didn't go through customs when I was returning from Tel Aviv to, I think, LGA, and I missed customs because I ended up, for various reasons, collapsing under the weight of the baggage I was carrying. I believe it may have been a customs agent herself who led me through without me showing anybody my passport.


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## railiner (Feb 28, 2014)

I didn't know there was a customs at LGA......or for that matter a flight from Tel Aviv to there....

You meant JFK, or EWR, right?


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## fairviewroad (Feb 28, 2014)

Green Maned Lion said:


> Please, when I was a lad I didn't go through customs when I was returning from Tel Aviv to, I think, LGA, and I missed customs because I ended up, for various reasons, collapsing under the weight of the baggage I was carrying. I believe it may have been a customs agent herself who led me through without me showing anybody my passport.


If it was a customs agent who led you through, then it would seem as though you fulfilled your legal responsibility to present yourself to customs, regardless of the documentation you produced. That being said, everything about international travel is stricter these days. It wasn't too long ago you could cross the US/Canada border

in either direction by simply verbally stating your citizenship. Good luck with that nowadays.


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## Devil's Advocate (Feb 28, 2014)

Green Maned Lion said:


> Please, when I was a lad I didn't go through customs when I was returning from Tel Aviv to, I think, LGA, and I missed customs because I ended up, for various reasons, collapsing under the weight of the baggage I was carrying. I believe it may have been a customs agent herself who led me through without me showing anybody my passport.


It's 2014 GML. Both the US and the UK have become surveillance states fighting a technological war against anything resembling personal privacy. Maybe when you were a lad such zero tolerance security policies didn't yet exist. And maybe when Genghis Khan was a lad passports didn't exist. But none of that changes how customs and immigration works today. You'd have to be a young child or a refugee to not realize something was amiss, but even in those cases you'd have a handler dropping you off and picking you up at the gate.


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## Green Maned Lion (Feb 28, 2014)

railiner said:


> I didn't know there was a customs at LGA......or for that matter a flight from Tel Aviv to there....
> 
> You meant JFK, or EWR, right?


Possibly. This was 13 years ago, at least. My memory is kinda foggy.


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