24-year old Habib flew Medina to Jaipur, toilet class

The immigration staff at the Jaipur international airport had a strange visitor on Friday night: a traveller who had no passport, no visa, no ticket, no money, no luggage, and thankfully, no explosives.

Making a complete mockery of the security arrangements, Habib, 24, a porter, travelled on an Air India flight from Medina in Saudi Arabia all the way to Jaipur without any documents, simply by hiding in the toilet of an aircraft.

Habib was among the 243 Haj pilgrims who arrived on the special flight from Medina to Jaipur around 8.35pm on Friday. He was discovered before the plane’s landing in Jaipur when the crew members finally realised that the plane had a freeloader.
For the Moradabad-based youngster, it was not supposed to end like this. In March this year, when he got a job in the Gulf, Habib had boarded a flight to Medina with dreams of making it big.

But his world came crashing down when, instead of the promised job, he was asked to work as a shepherd.

The employer, Habib says, impounded his passport to prevent him from escaping. But on Friday morning, Habib got his chance to flee, courtesy his recent employment as a porter at the Medina airport.

Finding a Jaipur-bound Air India plane unattended, Habib slipped into the toilet of the aircraft and locked himself inside before the passengers started boarding the plane.

And, after the check in, when a crew member knocked on the toilet door, he pretended to be a Haji with an upset stomach.

After four hours spent huddled in the toilet, he returned to his country, where he faces imprisonment of five years and a fine of Rs50,000 for violating the Passport Act.

“The crew scanned him thoroughly for any weapons and questioned him to find out if he posed any threat to the passengers. But they did not find anything on him, nor did he have any luggage,” an airport official said.

Convinced that the plane was under no threat, the staff allowed him to stay on and did not even inform the air traffic controller about the extra passenger. They, however, handed him over to immigration officials on arrival.

Police sources said that the crew members, including the air hostesses, did not inspect the aircraft thoroughly before admitting the passengers aboard. Apparently an airhostess had knocked on the toilet, which was latched from inside. “When the staff enquired about the person inside, the accused passed himself off as a Haj pilgrim who was using the toilet,” a police official said.

Superintendent of police (east) Biju Joseph George told DNA that, “prima facie, the negligence seems to be of the Air India staff. The crew members are supposed to check the cockpit and toilets before a plane takes off. They did not even alert the air traffic controller after they discovered the intruder on the plane.”

“It was only after the immigration authorities informed us about the passenger that we arrested him,” George said. Air India authorities were unwilling to comment on the matter. “The crew members are being questioned for their negligence,” an Air India officer at Jaipur said.