Someone stole my passport as I was boarding the plane

“Sir, you will not be capable of board the aircraft.”

However my associate is on the aircraft. In reality each passenger is on the aircraft ready to take off, besides me. And it is as a result of one among them, whether or not they understand it or not, has simply stolen my passport.

I shakily textual content my associate, hoping she hasn’t turned her cellphone off but.

“Babe my headphone case – I can not discover! My passport was in them!”

“Oh no!”

“You do not have them do you? They had been on prime of my backpack.”

“I do not suppose so. Checking.”

“I am freaking somebody stole them once I went for a stroll.”

“Test the seat? Inform the employees.”

“I did.”

“I haven’t got it. Bookshop? Bathroom?”

“They’re asking for those who’ll fly with out me.”

I really feel woozy. It is previous midnight and our aircraft to London by way of Hong Kong is the final one out. As a handful of frantic Cathay Pacific employees busy themselves round me, our rigorously deliberate, financially ruinous four-week European journey – my first abroad vacation in a decade – begins to dissolve earlier than it’s begun. 

My associate emerges ashen-faced from the walkway to the aircraft, holding again tears. Happily my despair at what’s transpiring presents as a stoic calm. “We’re so sorry,” says a member of the unfailingly sympathetic Cathay employees. They’ve been trying underneath chairs, in close by bins and even going via the safety footage for any signal of what should’ve occurred in solely the final ten minutes. “We’re eradicating your baggage,” they announce. “The aircraft has to go.”

We’re escorted via the airport by way of the Australian Border Police, so the Cathay employees can affirm I’m really a now passport-free Australian citizen. Sat on a desolate bench seat to attend for our now ineffective baggage, I can solely suppose in my daze how numb it feels to not be on a aircraft proper now.

Then we meet Charlie.

Charlie is Cathay Pacific’s obligation airport operations supervisor. He kindly wheels our baggage with him, together with a a lot wanted shot of sympathy.

“I am so sorry,” he says. “Wow. That is loopy. I’ve by no means heard of somebody having their passport stolen as they had been boarding the aircraft.”

It helps, however nonetheless chilly consolation at 1am within the morning when your aircraft is within the air with out you. 

“I’II get you a Cab Cost to get dwelling,” says Charlie. “And this is a card with my particulars on it.”

After which a sliver of hope.

“Possibly if you may get an emergency passport, I can get you on one other flight? E-mail me and let me know the way you go.”

We arrive again dwelling at 2am completely rinsed with adrenaline and remorse. After a crap sleep, we drive early to the Passport Workplace in Docklands, clutching a folder of paperwork that will but show who I’m. As my associate drives I file a police report. “Oh you’re kidding?,” says the cop on the cellphone. “You would not imagine it could you? How might somebody try this? On the departure gate?”

On the passport workplace we unload our sorry story on the officer on the first window. He offers us a brief kind to finish and says the particular person on the subsequent window ought to approve it. The particular person on the subsequent window says that concept is silly. 

“The one means you should utilize that kind,” she says curtly, “is you probably have your outdated passport.” Which if I had, we wouldn’t be right here. “So I’ve to fill out an entire new passport software kind on my cellphone earlier than the battery dies and pray it’d miraculously be permitted earlier than you shut at 4pm for the weekend?”

“That is proper.”

We glumly get sushi from a meals courtroom. We doze in a park. We stare on the sky and say “I can not imagine it,” roughly 300 instances. Six months of planning and saving, all down the drain. 

Then a cellphone name – it is Charlie.

“Do not cancel your passport,” he says. “Somebody handed it in together with your headphones in Hong Kong. They mentioned they picked them up by mistake. We are able to fly them again and get you on the identical flight tonight.”

However I’ve simply paid $523 to cancel it with the intention to apply for a brand new one.

4 hours later I’m shifting the automotive and questioning if Docklands is in any means much like the Greek island of Paros, when an electronic mail refresh delivers a bolt of incredulous pleasure: in opposition to all odds, my emergency passport software has been permitted.

I steam into the passport workplace like Stephen Bradbury himself, seize my nonetheless heat passport and message Charlie, who evidently works 24 hours a day working worldwide airline operations and coping with randoms he gave his electronic mail handle to. He replies instantly: he’s booked us on the identical flight tonight, simply 24 hours following catastrophe. I refuse to imagine something till the seatbelt signal is on. 

We race dwelling, gather our still-unpacked baggage and zoom to the airport. We’re giddily checking-in on the touchscreen when an unfamiliar phrase pops up. “Wait…does that say enterprise class?” WT precise F. We’re going to fly to London on enterprise class. I’ve by no means travelled greater than exit row. As a two-metre tall man who barely suits in his personal mattress, this unbelievable generosity is akin to osteo for the soul.

We see Charlie. We see all the identical great Cathay employees from final night time. They actually clap on the sight of us, as if we’re all appearing in the identical play once more, solely this one has the nice ending. We head down the identical departure tunnel, previous the identical newsagents, every part newly vivid and fantastical. We’ve been reborn as wealthy individuals who know the place the enterprise lounge is and precisely learn how to behave in there – or simply exceptionally fortunate ones who now know what it’s wish to have the long-anticipated promise of journey stripped away. 

Lastly on the boarding gate, Charlie returns one final time at hand me my headphone case, my now cancelled passport nonetheless inside – this man who had nothing to do with it being stolen, however nonetheless determined to do every part he might to assist. I instinctively maintain my arms aloft as he approaches. My saviour. Victory from the jaws of defeat. 

4 weeks later I electronic mail Charlie from London. We’ve slept soundly on beds in enterprise class, had fancy showers within the lounge at Hong Kong airport, seen my favorite band in Camden, walked ourselves foolish round Paris and Marseille, swum within the fluorescent blue Aegean sea and seemed down on Athens from the Parthenon. I inform him we think about all of it due to him, his employees and the unbelievable kindness they confirmed in our second of sheer panic.

He replies: “Credit score to you each – you had been so calm and understanding, which made every part a lot simpler. Take pleasure in the remainder of the journey and can see you on the flip aspect.”

On the lengthy flight dwelling in financial system, I didn’t even flinch every time the dinner trolley banged my knee bent out into the aisle. I used to be simply so glad to be on the aircraft.