Search for British tourist who disappeared at Bangkok airport

[reader]

From The Thaiger

A 27 year old British tourist embarked on a dream holiday to Thailand but has mysteriously vanished, leaving his loved ones in a state of despair.

Simon Robinson jetted off to Thailand on July 22, planning to soak up the Sun until August 3. However, just days into his trip, he phoned his girlfriend on July 26, announcing his early return. That call was the last anyone heard from him.

According to The Lincolnite, Robinson, who spends much of his time in Boston, Lincolnshire, UK, never boarded his flight despite his phone pinging near Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi International Airport. Since that fateful call, his phone has been switched off, and his whereabouts remain unknown.

Friends and family are now frantically raising awareness to initiate a search effort. South Yorkshire police have confirmed that Simon’s case has been reported, though they have not launched a missing persons appeal. The Foreign Office has stated it is ready to assist any British national abroad.

[unicorn]

[Riobard]

18 hours ago, unicorn said:

The original location component of the story is now Finnish. Perhaps that makes it more relevant, or not.

[reader]

From The Thaiger

The baffling disappearance of a British tourist hours before his flight from Bangkok has taken a twist: his sister insists he did board a plane.

Sarah Robinson-Dale revealed that her brother, 27 year old Simon Robinson, boarded a flight to Helsinki, Finland. This revelation has shifted the search a staggering 5,000 miles from Southeast Asia to the Arctic Circle.

Initially, Robinson was feared to have vanished in Bangkok, leaving his family distraught and believing he never boarded his July 26 flight home, despite his phone pinging near the airport minutes before departure.

“We have received confirmation that Simon did board the flight on July 26. A massive thank you to everyone who shared and to the kind people who found this information, as police on both sides haven’t done anything. I am waiting for a call back from the police and embassy in Helsinki.”

The family’s new theory was prompted by a man claiming to be a Thai immigration officer, who informed them Robinson was on flight AY142 – Finnair’s Bangkok-Helsinki route. Dale confirmed her brother jetted off to Finland but did not reveal the source of her confirmation.

Finnair declined to provide customer information when The Sun requested verification of Robinson’s flight details.

Robinson, from Skegness, Lincolnshire, initially flew to Thailand on July 22 and was not due home until August 3. However, on July 26, he called his girlfriend to announce he was flying home early. He has not been heard from since.

The UK Foreign Office stated it stands ready to assist any Brit abroad but refrained from commenting on Simon’s case. Interpol also declined to comment, citing the need for special circumstances or approval from the missing person’s country, reported The Sun UK.

[Riobard]

Getting Corrie St enough yet? And yes, same guy posting at about Day 4 of missing parent. 

[reader]

You might want to cite your source for above.

[10tazione]

 "Mysterious disappearance" reminds me of a case in a gay sauna in Vienna in 2007:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disappearance_of_Aeryn_Gillern

 

[Riobard]

I would say that a much clearer gay connection is that an actor named Robinson plays Simon in Love, Simon. 

On a more serious note apparently the mother that was reported missing (not the Jennifer Garner one) was dead by the end of the same year (2020), but with no bridging info indicating foul play or whatnot, just mentioned as predeceased in the father’s notice of sudden death at home at age 65 at the end of that year. Though of course also COVID’s inaugural year.

Having done a clinical rotation in suicide intervention, I fear the worse for this young man. If a pertinent factor, family history may figure in their present anxiety.

[unicorn]

6 hours ago, Riobard said:

The original location component of the story is now Finnish...

[Riobard]

36 minutes ago, unicorn said:

You devil you, you like travel, so go to Helsinki yourself in a tub and try to chill a spell. 

[unicorn]

14 minutes ago, Riobard said:

You devil you, you like travel, so go to Helsinki yourself in a tub and try to chill a spell. 

I've been to both Helsinki and to Hell, Cayman Islands...😁

 

[reader]

1 hour ago, Riobard said:

I would say that a much clearer gay connection is that an actor named Robinson plays Simon in Love, Simon. 

On a more serious note apparently the mother that was reported missing (not the Jennifer Garner one) was dead by the end of the same year (2020), but with no bridging info indicating foul play or whatnot, just mentioned as predeceased in the father’s notice of sudden death at home at age 65 at the end of that year. Though of course also COVID’s inaugural year.

Having done a clinical rotation in suicide intervention, I fear the worse for this young man. If a pertinent factor, family history may figure in their present anxiety.

In other words you have no source. 😄

[Riobard]

4 hours ago, reader said:

In other words you have no source. 😄

Sister’s social media and go from there. You’re the one that provided the first lead, Nancy. You have her name. I’m not your personal secretary. Get Bess, George, Frank, Joe, Bert, Nan, Flossie and Freddie, and the showrunners of the Viennese tubs spa doc to help you look up the info yourself. That last part actually added relevance.😂

This is far more fun. The wrong people go off grid, inn’t.

If you like, get the father’s name, mother’s name, UK missing persons coastguard data, the actual name and media handles of the BKK airport official involved, extended blended family tree, what have you. It’s all at your fingertips within a few minutes. Thai translator app may extend the effort a tad.

My interest is clinical, convergent integration of various components into a narrative, the same type of process that guides how to manage difficult people. Then possibly seeing the degree of coherence, of commonality, between my interpretation and any true outcome summary evolving beyond emerging puzzle pieces … should they actually be available. These missing-person stories often fizzle out faster than my inclination to accommodate absurd requests. 

For example as well, we shouldn’t need travel receipts to demonstrate to obnoxious entitled second-rate influencers where we’ve been, as you well know. Behind every troll’s demand lurks psychological impotence. 

[reader]

In other words, you have no source. 😃

[unicorn]

4 hours ago, Riobard said:

...I’m not your personal secretary....

You're free to make shit up and not reveal your sources. Just don't complain when others call you as a bullshitter. 

[reader]

I provided the source to both of the news accounts that appeared in Thai media above.

We are left to conclude that Riobard made up this yarn:

16 hours ago, Riobard said:

 

 

[Riobard]

The fellow’s family and friends must be beside themselves with worry. He and his sister, the same one referenced as reporting his disappearance, each reported on their social media in March 2020 (see his “yarn” above; a term employed by resident troll) that his mother was missing, searching ensued, and then “crickets”.

Local news sources reported that her body was retrieved some 18 days later, a few miles south of her parked vehicle, from a 175 metre-wide river in a relatively populated area. Death not deemed suspicious; I believe that the meta-message is often suicide or accident. Likely not swimming weather. 

No further information on their social media ensued about her death as it was likely deemed a family matter and folks will often retreat from their socials as only those relevant to the deceased are informed. Simply a later reference to 2020 having been an extraordinarily trying year, the father (surviving spouse) having died at the end of 2020. The timing of their mother’s (stepmother to Simon’s considerably older sister, but I assume his bio Mom) after weeks of disappearance is not indicated by family. 

Sadly, this information had been utilized early on by local trolls privy to the history in an attempt to shape the present narrative online, even as far as accusing the family of crowdsourcing and Simon of irresponsibility. His family and friends express fear that he will be stereotyped and that this will subvert the wide social net cast in the hopes of finding him. They are downplaying the deja vu flavour of the present crisis. He is described as sensitive and caring, and surely has an experiential grasp of the pain of searching for a missing loved one. 

The family must be racked with complex decision-making and second-guessing about what theories explain his disappearance: foul play, mental health, injury, dissociative fugue, having taken personal space and avoiding what he would face in terms of their anger upon resurfacing, any number of explanations save flying on an Airbus as opposed to Boeing if he indeed flew Finnair. Online critics have challenged the source of the departure verification, an apparent airport government agent doing it “off the record” through messaging on the sister’s socials, and Finnair refuses to release ‘confidential information’ about passengers’ boarding status. Without this courtesy Simon’s people are struggling whether to send a family member to Thailand or Finland, and what Interpol branch to prevail upon.

—-

This has got me to thinking about tracking my own travel movements with family by sharing itineraries, etc. I already do this. I was wondering if I list an emergency contact for flight bookings, as I do in my airline profiles, would that person be able to break through the firewall of confidentiality with any carrier that applies, or is that a one-way street limited to the airline’s interests?

[Riobard]

17 hours ago, unicorn said:

You're free to make shit up and not reveal your sources. Just don't complain when others call you as a bullshitter. 

Naw, Imma complain, bossy-pants.

Weren’t you one of those suckered into posting a redacted travel ticket when accused of fabrication? (Going from memory, admittedly, I wish my brain would filter out the painfully boring.) 

Who, whether you or anybody, with any degree of self-possession falls for that?

Remember what Dan Savage’s definition of Santorum is? 🤣

[reader]

15 minutes ago, Riobard said:

The fellow’s family and friends must be beside themselves with worry. He and his sister, the same one referenced as reporting his disappearance, each reported on their social media in March 2020 (see his “yarn” above; a term employed by resident troll) that his mother was missing, searching ensued, and then “crickets”.

Local news sources reported that her body was retrieved some 18 days later, a few miles south of her parked vehicle, from a 175 metre-wide river in a relatively populated area. Death not deemed suspicious; I believe that the meta-message is often suicide or accident. Likely not swimming weather.

Attribution, Riobard; attribution. Where is it?

If sources exist, why aren't you citing them?

Trump must have been your debate coach. 😃

[Riobard]

42 minutes ago, reader said:

Attribution, Riobard; attribution. Where is it?

If sources exist, why aren't you citing them?

Trump must have been your debate coach. 😃

Because I am citing them.

I think I get it. Reader means AI bot but pretending to not get with the 21st century?

Family and friends names steer to social media handles. If you cannot name, say, 3 platforms within that overarching meaning then you should recuse yourself. Perhaps I have unfairly attributed your posturing to obnoxiousness where learned helplessness better applies.

There is public domain info outside the parameters of a few relatively rinkadink Thai news sources you seem to be umbilically tied to. If you can identify a few social media platforms zero degrees of separation from several persons in the story, start there. If you cannot, I suggest you recuse yourself from the discussion because you are wasting my time other than that I can perhaps reinforce my expectations for reporting standards.

I have more than a dozen individual person social media sources within four social media platforms going along with several additional news sources corroborating the narrative I have summarized. I am not listing them all and nobody with any sense will rifle through it all even if posted. Do you think I spend time scrolling through absurdly endless Twitter/X links of somatotype carbon copy trade that members insert?

It’s your prerogative to undertake the same triangulated approach to information gathering and refute my views as they stand related to the missing persons story, as they are not incontrovertible. Or take a chill pill, let it all go, until the next occasion you feel impelled to post a low impact low output story of middling interest and toss a grenade into innocent attempts to increase its pertinence.

I don’t have your trust? So who’s to stop you? You’re the actual story here and I wonder why that doesn’t make you happy. 😃 

[reader]

That really sounds a lot like the way Trump tries to get away with making up the news. 😃

[Riobard]

27 minutes ago, reader said:

That really sounds a lot like the way Trump tries to get away with making up the news. 😃

So you don’t have a source other than a lame quip. 

Funny thing is, I’m not American and don’t visit, but because he is so central to your zeitgeist, it happens to be his qualities, right down to the physicality and his absurdity that come to mind when I’m addressing somebody like you. After all, he is relatable to a substantial minority of countrymen so the probability of even a rando being binned in with him isn’t so far fetched. There are those that throw in with him and gaslight with plausible deniability. 

It’s not as if you exemplify humility. Be my delusional guest regarding truth social. 

[reader]

Na, Riobard, you're the one who fabricates the news with the same misdirection of Trump. You figure if you just keep saying the same trash eventually people will figure it must be true. But please keep trying! 😃

[Riobard]

5 minutes ago, reader said:

Na, Riobard, you're the one who fabricates the news with the same misdirection of Trump. You figure if you just keep saying the same trash eventually people will figure it must be true. But please keep trying! 😃

Receipts?

I’m not writing a news column. I am constructing a scenario with concrete contextual information in relation to the explanatory models underpinning the phenomena of persons that go missing. This emanates from a research background in which critical appraisal figures prominently.

[reader]

That's the spirit, Riobard. 😃