Woman misses flight after security scanner is unable to recognize face following plastic surgery

Police recommend that you update your ID card if your appearance changes dramatically after going under the knife

A Chinese woman was prevented from boarding a plane recently because her face looked so unlike the pre-plastic surgery photo on her ID card.

The 28-year-old woman, surnamed Zhang, had booked a flight from Chengdu to Shanghai for Sunday and had arrived at the airport well ahead of time. However, she was stopped at the security check and informed that the station’s facial recognition system could not identify her face.

Zhang told the Chengdu Business Daily that she tried to explain to the security officer that she had had work done to her face, but all to no avail. He insisted that she would have to go to the police station to verify her identity.

In the end, the woman ended up running back and forth for four hours, trying to navigate a maze of bureaucratic red tape and prove that she was who she said she was. But, by that point, her plane had already left her behind. Despite making a number of complaints to any manager or worker she could find, she had no choice but to cancel her 1,190 yuan plane ticket.

She ended up just taking the train to Shanghai instead.

Afterward, police said that nowadays more and more people are getting plastic surgery and to avoid a similarly inconvenient episode individuals are advised to update their identity cards whenever their appearance changes dramatically.

Last October, a photo went viral online which purported to show three puffy-faced Chinese women stuck at a South Korea airport, unable to confirm their identities after getting plastic surgery.

Unfortunately, a short time later, the country’s justice ministry stated the story was nothing more than a bit of “fake news.”

[Images via Chengdu Business Daily]