There was an article in the Juneau Empire about a teenager who paid cash for an airline ticket and took off without her parent’s permission or showing any form of identification.

Why can teenagers fly without ID? I thought we had to show ID because we were scared of terrorists and criminals but it doesn’t seem like a 29 year old presents any more danger than a 17 year old. This isn’t a new rule. How many people have been flying without ID? Have they done any damage or caused any problems?

It seems like parental permission is a good idea for kids under 18 but I’m still not convinced that ID is necessary. If people who appear to be between the ages of 13 and 17 are jetting around without ID, why make the rest of us go through the hassle?

They’ll probably close this up soon but it’s the perfect loophole for a modern day Frank Abignale Jr. to exploit.

UPDATE – Apparently there is no rule requiring people to show ID on airplanes and you can travel without one if you submit to a secondary screening. For more information about the government demanding to see our papers, check out John Gilmore’s identity project.

Here’s the Juneau Empire article:

• Teenager buys one-way ticket to a nightmare
  Loophole allows youth to fly without parents’ permission

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 23rd, 2007 at 10:28 pm and is filed under Commentary. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.