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Airports

Traveler accused of impersonating pilot to skip lines at the airport

By Michael Hollan Fox News
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Nobody likes a line cutter, even if they go to extreme measures to pull it off.

A traveler in India was arrested after he was accused of impersonating a pilot at the airport, reportedly donning the disguise in an attempt to bypass security lines.

Authorities arrested Rajan Mahbubani at Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport on Tuesday, KTLA 5 reported. At the time of his arrest, he was wearing a pilot’s uniform and was about to board an AirAsia flight from Delhi to Kolkata.

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Mahbubani was reportedly carrying a fake pilot ID for Lufthansa, a German airline.

A Lufthansa employee alerted airport security that they suspected a passenger was impersonating one of their captains. AirAsia contacted Lufthansa to verify Mahbubani’s identity.

“Mahbubani said that he was a frequent flier and used to dress up as a pilot to gain easy access through security, get preferential treatment from security agencies and airlines and [get] seat upgrades,” the airport’s deputy commissioner of police Sanjay Bhatia told press outlets. “He would use the passage normally used by airline crew.”

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Oddly, airport security says they were already on the lookout for Mahbubani because of videos he would post on social media platforms.

Mahbubani apparently had a history of dressing up in various uniforms, and pictures of him wearing an army uniform were reportedly discovered on his phone.

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Mahbubani is currently in custody, facing charges of cheating and impersonating. He could be sentenced to a year in prison if found guilty, according to KTLA 5.