Inspectors Skipped X-Ray Checks for Ghosn Jet, NHK Says

(Bloomberg) -- Inspectors at a Japanese airport didn’t conduct X-ray checks on large cases before they were loaded onto a private jet that’s thought to have carried Carlos Ghosn as the former Nissan Motor Co. chief executive officer escaped to Turkey, NHK reported Sunday, citing people it didn’t identify.

Kansai International Airport inspectors didn’t examine the cases as they were too big to fit into the X-ray machine, NHK said. Airport officials often don’t carry out baggage scans for private jets if requested by aircraft operators or pilots, NHK said, citing sources it didn’t identify.

The cases were reportedly more than 1 meter (3.3 feet) tall, the public broadcaster said, adding that Japanese police now suspect that Ghosn may have hidden in one of them to fly to Turkey.

MNG Jet Havacilik AS, the operator of the private jets that transported Ghosn from Japan to Lebanon, on Friday said the airplanes were deployed illegally, using falsified records that didn’t mention Ghosn as a passenger.

To contact the reporter on this story: Go Onomitsu in Tokyo at gonomitsu@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Yusuke Miyazawa at ymiyazawa3@bloomberg.net, Linus Chua, Virginia Van Natta

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