Man climbs Mumbai airport wall, walks up to main runway to ‘see plane’
In a major security lapse, a man scaled the perimeter wall of the Mumbai airport and walked towards the main runway of the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport.
A video circulating on social media showed the man calmly walk over to the SpiceJet flight SG 634 and inspect it. As a yellow jeep pulls up behind him, the man proceeds to casually inspect the nose of the plane and then walk under it.
The man was later detained by Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) personnel.
Sharing the video on Twitter, actor and political activist Gul Panag questioned how the person got "so close to the engine."
"I don't even. How did he enter? What was CISF doing? He goes so close to the engine. Unbelievable," She tweeted.
According to News agency PTI, the engines of the SpiceJet plane, which was readying for takeoff to Bengaluru, were immediately shut down to avert any accident, reported news agency PTI.
"The pilots of the SpiceJet plane showed presence of mind and immediately shut down the engines to avert any accident when they saw the man walking up the plane that was standing on runway 27," an official of aviation watchdog Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), was quoted as saying by PTI.
The man, from Mumbai's Sion area, jumped the wall from the south side of Mumbai airport's runway 27 at 1.30 in the afternoon, according to PTI.
He added that at around 1.30 pm, the 26-year-old man from Sion jumped the wall from south side of runway 27 and crossed the perimeter intrusion identification system.
"The man, who seems to be of unsound mind, has been arrested by the CISF," the official added.
The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) will further probe the incident, he said. The CISF has also ordered an inquiry into it.
(With PTI inputs)
