Boldly Going Nowhere: Alex Salmond Blocked From Flight After Booking Ticket As Star Trek Character

Scottish National Party MP Alex Salmond was blocked form boarding a flight after he booked a ticket using Star Trek character Captain Kirk as his name.

The former Scottish First Minister was left red-faced after British Airways staff refused him entry onto the plane when they saw ‘James T Kirk’ on the ticket.

Salmond, a big fan of the classic sci-fi series, has been using the alias for years in an attempt to travel incognito for security reasons.

But he nearly missed his flight back to Scotland after a week at Westminster when staff noticed that the name on the ticket did not match his passport.

A source told the Mail on Sunday: “Salmond arrived at the check-in desk, presented a ticket with the name James T Kirk on it, then handed over his passport with his real name on it.

“Unsurprisingly, the woman on the desk refused to check him in.

“As the queue built up and other staff members came over, Mr Salmond made calls to arrange for emails to be sent to him, which he showed to BA, backing up his story.”

Staff eventually let Mr Salmond onto the plane.

Mr Salmond previously had bodyguards to back up his story but no longer uses them after he resigned from his post as First Minister after last year’s failed Scottish independence referendum.

He said of the incident, that took place over summer: “It was all sorted out.

“I just wanted BA to ‘beam me up, Scotty’.”

Captain Kirk was played by William Shatner in the Star Trek TV series and film franchise before the role was taken over by Chris Pine in the 2009 reboot.

Pics: Rex/Flickr