Lost passports are a perennial hazard for the teams of contestants on “The Amazing Race,” now in its tenth year of production. This time around, a passport mishap almost ended one team’s race before it could even begin.

Kaylani Paliotta and her teammate Lisa Tilley stopped at a gas station en route to Los Angeles International Airport. Unfortunately, Kaylani’s passport didn’t make it out of the gas station.  The film crew, who saw the dropped passport, were unable to intervene- except to call the show’s producers to tell them that the team was toast.

Host Phil Keoghan told the New York Times that “We were planning on eliminating this particular team, because there was no way they were going to travel.”

The duo’s race was saved, however, by an unlikely hero named Ryan Storm. Mr. Storm, a techie with an active Twitter account, saw Kaylani drop her passport and tweeted about it:

“So #Thelife gets crazier. So after being randomly filmed for ‘The Amazing Race,’ I see that one of them dropped there [sic] passport!!!”

His tweet was seen by another Twitter user, someone with a passion for “The Amazing Race” (and perhaps a bit too much time on his or her hands) who was monitoring the social network for mentions of the show. This person urged Mr. Storm to take the passport to the airport ASAP.

How could he say no? As he wrote to the New York Times, “Her dream was going to die right now if I didn’t get her this passport.”

With Kaylani’s lost passport returned, the elimination ceremony was called off and the two women were able to continue the race.

What would have happened if Mr. Storm hadn’t made it to the airport? While it would have been heartbreaking to see them shut out of the race that early, it was understandable that they were slated for elimination given the fact that lost passports take time to replace. Standard processing can take a whole six weeks, while expedited processing can take three.

Faster service is available, with twenty-four hour processing available by appointment only at one of the State Department’s 24 regional passport agency offices or without an appointment through a private expediter like RushMyPassport.com. Unfortunately, when it comes to The Amazing Race, even 24 hour processing is too slow.

Need help replacing a lost passport quickly? Contact us today!