Digi Yatra facial recognition denies access to identical twins at Mumbai Airport
Two identical twin brothers registered with Digi Yatra were denied access through the facial recognition gate at Mumbai Airport because the system detected multiple people with the same face. The system's refusal to process them prompted discussion about the limitations of facial recognition technology in edge cases.
What happened
Two identical twin brothers, both registered users of Digi Yatra, attempted to pass through the facial recognition gate at Mumbai Airport.
The system displayed an 'access denied' message stating 'more than one person found with the same face' and blocked their entry.
The brothers were forced to use the manual verification queue with physical identification instead of the fast-track facial recognition service they had registered for.
Reported impact
The twin brothers were unable to use the Digi Yatra fast-track service despite both being registered and instead had to wait in a long manual verification queue at the airport.
Index analysis
Experts noted that the system's denial of access when detecting extremely similar facial data may reflect a built-in safety feature designed to prevent identity overlap and impersonation, rather than a malfunction.
The incident highlighted a limitation of facial recognition systems when confronted with near-identical human faces, demonstrating edge cases not typically accounted for in standard system design.
Governance controls
Digi Yatra provides a backup manual verification process when the facial recognition gate cannot recognize a passenger, allowing travelers to show physical identification such as Aadhaar, PAN, or passport along with their boarding pass.
Classification
Sources and evidence
Sources not yet published
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