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Comment by janmo | Hacker News Reader

He was arrested at the airport, it is unclear if he was trying to enter or leave Montenegro. I can imagine he was trying to go somewhere else.

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It's not exactly a big airport, not a lot of flights: https://montenegroairports.com/en/podgorica-airport/

His last known whereabouts were in Serbia, and Belgrade - Podgorica have about five flights per day both ways.

If he flew from Serbia to Montenegro it would have just been completely dumb, crossing the land border would have been much safer for him. I suspect he was trying to leave for somewhere very far away but his Passport did not fool the airport staff

Where very far away? There are fine destinations: Belgrade, Istanbul, Vienna, Manchester, Varna (Bulgaria).

I wouldn't say any of them were a particularly smart choice.

Istanbul might not be an awful shout tbh, though if I was wanted internationally and I'd successfully entered somewhere Montenegro I'd probably sit tight for a while. It's a small country, but it's quite nice and you could probably fly under the radar for a while if you kept your nose clean.

> There are fine destinations: Belgrade, Istanbul, Vienna, Manchester, Varna (Bulgaria).

I assume these are the commercial destinations. Is it out of the question that he chartered a flight?

The question is why he wouldn't cross the land border and then fly from there. Customs is rarely checking passports as thoroughly on the way out as on the way in. The thinking was probably the risk was the same since he was entering the airport anyway, but failed to account for risk of having passport checked in then out instead of just out.

Only thing about a land border between Serbia and Montenegro is that they might get even more suspicious than an airport about WhyTF a random Korean is there.

You can just hike your way around the border

Problem is leaving at the airport, if they check and see your entry isn’t registered anywhere. Still could work if you plan on staying forever, hiking out, or flying private because only normies can do bad things and need to have their movements subject to scrutiny.

> flying private because only normies can do bad things and need to have their movements subject to scrutiny

You still go through customs when flying private.

Supposed to anyway.

Are they expecting every Cessna 172 travelling out-of-country to depart from one of their two international airports?

I have a feeling most of the way it happens is someone just says they are going to a border town and just ... don't stop. IF the pilot doesn't care about losing his license (i.e. they're being paid Do Kwon kind of money) and those on the flight manifest aren't returning, doesn't seem like there's much they'd be able to do.

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