Man hides in toilet on Haj flight to India

Jaipur/New Delhi: In a serious security lapse that revived concerns about counter-terrorism security measures, a stowaway on an Air India flight hid in the plane's toilet to fly to India. The lapse occurred on a special Haj flight operated by AI on the Medina-Jaipur sector on Friday, with 273 passengers on board.
Habib Hussain, a 26-year-old from Moradabad, had gone to Saudi Arabia six months ago and was employed as a loader by an agency providing services at Medina Airport. Habib went aboard for maintenance work in the Airbus A-330's loo and reportedly locked himself in there. Eyewitnesses say he was detected 45 minutes after takeoff when he walked out and sat on a vacant seat. He easily stood out among the Haj pilgrims because he had his overalls on.
However, other sources said an airhostess reported to the chief purser that a toilet was locked for a very long time. "The cabin crew can open a toilet door from outside in case of an emergency like someone fainting inside or simply not knowing how to unlock. Once the door was opened, the stowaway was discovered," the source said.
Habib's story has sent alarm bells ringing in security circles as it has exposed how easy it is for someone to smuggle himself on board. Police say it was "criminal negligence" on the part of the flight crew which led to the incident. The negligence was such that the red-light above the toilet door, which is on when it is occupied, went unnoticed. "It must have been on even before the flight took off," SP (East) Biju G Joseph said.
AI did not accept a security breach theory. "Only authorized personnel enter an aircraft for maintenance after clearing security checks in the sterile airport zone. Pilots announce before takeoff that all ground personnel must deplane. There is no practice of checking toilets or under seats to look for hidden passengers. The boarding card stub taken from passengers at the aircraft ladder is used to do a headcount with people seated inside. This is what airlines do," said AI spokesman Jitendra Bhargava.
The crew alerted Jaipur Airport Authority and handed him over to the CISF and immigration officials soon after the plane landed at 9.45pm. The local police were informed around 2 am on Saturday.
Police plan to take action against Habib as well as Air India officials.
27/12/09 Nitesh Sharma & Saurabh Sinha/Times of India

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Categories: Air India - International Dec 2009, Airports Dec 2009, Foreign Dec 2009, NACIL Dec 2009, Safety Dec 2009