What’s with this?

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divezonescuba

Contributor
Scuba Instructor
Divemaster
Messages
2,013
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Location
Houston, Texas
# of dives
1000 - 2499
Well I would hope it's just a mid understanding, some one brought some "home test kits" that the airport people have not seen before. Or something to that effect, but if we are dealing with Americans here anything is possible.
 
Home test kit maybe ok in US, but probably not approved by Bonaire regulators, therefore not valid and illegal in that country. Also, loss of income to local industry.
 
Looks like a candidate for stupid criminal, while it may be nothing I would think the use of the word “falsified“ would move it toward criminal rather than innocent mistake, now if it said “improper” …
 
Just saying, we are a fiercely independent group of problem solvers🙄
 
I was on this flight. It is my understanding from a traveler who was affected that an employee of the testing company was fired, but then administered tests anyway to preregistered customers at a resort, and issued test documents. Some names were misspelled and did not match with airline records. The test company then confirmed that it did not have records of the customers. Police came to Flamingo Airport and identified the travelers who had been given improper tests, who were all immediately retested and then allowed to proceed with travel. Unless this entire narrative is incorrect, and I don't think it is, it seems implausible that there was any "black market" activity or any collusion. Nor does it appear to have anything to do with home test kits.
 
I have to say it is pretty sad to see how everyone is immediately jumping all over the travelers accusing them of criminal behavior. I have seen this piece of news on a Bonaire Facebook group as well, and essentially there were calls for the passengers to drawn and quartered... While, with the story above, they did absolutely nothing wrong but being dupe by a former employee of the testing company.

Could have happened to all of us...
 
Definitely not the fault of the passengers.
 
It’d take quite the criminal masterminds to recruit 30 or so of their besties to falsify a test which I’ll bet has been ~100% negative for months. But a motivated sociopath with test tubes and a cashbox can cause real problems, eh? I hope the bogus tests are identifiable on their face (it sounds like they were), but if it’s true that only misspelling of passengers’ names triggered the investigation, a more determined scammer could cause even more significant problems. Every travel document (a license, passport, global entry) is vetted and verified, but these test reports, not so much. More. Vaccinations.
 

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