How rampant is theft on planes flying in and out of Hong Kong?
Cabin crooks prey on the innocent 30,000 feet in the air, but who should be held responsible – the airlines for a lack of security or passengers for complacency?
Beware the treacherous skies with organised criminals on the prowl in aircraft cabins, ready to relieve you of your valuables with stunning guile. Expect neither restitution nor recompense, and very little sympathy to boot.
I would have recouped more than I lost if I had a dollar for every person who chastised me for not stashing my cash in my underwear and the likes thereof so it would not have been stolen while flying Air India from Delhi to Hong Kong recently.
Warning to Chinese passengers after cash is stolen on flight
Nothing else – credit cards, laptop, iPhone – was removed from the unlocked zip suitcase, which was so tightly packed that it would have required considerable stealth and manoeuvring skills to open it and carry out such an elaborate switch.
The money was intact when I got on the plane, and no one could have known in advance that I was carrying it except for security staff when my cabin baggage was going through an X-ray scan. I left my seat only once to use the washroom for just a few minutes after the in-flight dinner service, which I would not consider ample time to execute the swap. I drifted in and out of sleep throughout the journey, which means the perpetrators would have had to pounce during one of those precariously short intervals of deep slumber.
It turns out this kind of scam is commonplace, mostly among flights coming into Hong Kong from Middle Eastern or Asian countries, Hong Kong police said.
In addition to the innumerable unhelpful messages, comments and emails from readers suggesting I was an “idiot” for not taking care of my valuables, there were also plenty of similar horror stories as others shared their own experiences. One was a student who lost €9,000 (US$10,800) from a locked cabin bag he had placed in the overhead compartment on an Air France flight from Hong Kong to Paris in 2016 – the thief, whom he suspects was a passenger sitting next to him, replaced the money with 76 US$1 notes.