tuxette's Journal: making a mockery of the ID checks...

Not that I care. This whole ID check thing serves no other purpose than to make sure that someone doesn't pass off their non-refundable non-transferrable ticket to someone else anyway. Maybe the airlines should stop being so anal about that...

Homemade ID enough for air travel

ID checks for all domestic flights have been in force since March 1, but the ID cards used do not have to be issued by an authority.

Eilert Sundt from Stamsund shows a homemade club ID at security control when flying within Norway, newspaper Lofotposten reports.

Sundt is one of three members of the Norwegian Map Zoology Association, a group that looks for the shapes of animals in the layouts of city street maps. The ID card is for the association, and was made as a joke, the newspaper reports.

The requirements for ID used for domestic flight security are that the card has the name, picture and social security number of the bearer, information adviser Bjørn Erlandsen at the Civil Aviation Authority told consumer web site Forbruker.no. He confirmed that the homemade ID meets the requirements.

Erlandsen explained that the idea of the domestic ID check was to ensure that the person checking in baggage was the same person that boards the plane.

"This is not a legal check of the person's identity," Erlandsen said. According to regulations travelers with only hand baggage do not need to show ID.

Progress Party member of parliament Kenneth Svendsen demands a system where passengers must show an official ID card.

"This is completely unacceptable. I thought that everyone had to show an officially issued identification at airports. I have shown my parliamentary ID and been told that it was not valid because my social security number was not on it," Svendsen said.