A British tennis player, Stuart Burden, was wrongly identified as a deportee and marched off a Wizz Air flight in Vilnius, despite wearing a Great Britain tracksuit and holding a valid UK passport. The mistake, which he only escaped after his teammates alerted cabin crew, raises concerns that a genuine deportee may have gone unquestioned as a result of the mix-up, and highlights a worrying lapse in airport and airline identification procedures.

Burden, 48, from London, was travelling to Lithuania on 23 August as a hitter for visually impaired players at the World Blind Tennis Championships when a security official boarded the plane and called him a "deportee from the UK". He was taken for questioning and briefly saw holding cells at customs before officials realised their error and released him without apology. Wizz Air said it was "extremely sorry" and is working with authorities to establish what happened, while the Home Office declined to comment.