Worked 2-3 days straight: Man who slept in Mumbai airport bus, missed flight

Bengaluru-based sound engineer was found screaming for help from a locked ground shuttle bus in which he fell asleep during the short ride from the terminal to the aircraft

A man who fell asleep in a Mumbai airport bus and missed his flight has said that he was up working for 2-3 days at a stretch before he dozed off due to exhaustion.

The man, whose identity is being withheld on his request, was to catch an Indigo flight to Bengaluru on June 4 but he kept sleeping in the bus. (Vipin Kumar/HT File Photo)

The man, whose identity is being withheld on his request, was to catch an Indigo flight to Bengaluru on June 4 but he kept sleeping in the bus. The driver apparently failed to notice him and parked the vehicle for the night.

“I was in Mumbai for official work and continuously working for 2-3 days. I was very tired and fell asleep after I sat on the back seat, close to the air-conditioner vent,” said the 38-year-old, a sound engineer with a Bengaluru-based firm.

The incident triggered security concerns over the airline’s boarding procedure as the crew failed to notice that one of its passengers did not board.

He was found six hours later when someone noticed him shouting for help from inside the locked bus.

“I spent the entire night at the airport and took the first flight to Bangalore in the morning,” the flier said.

“Initially, I was treated as a suspect but I told security about the entire incident”.

Airlines are supposed to tally their passenger manifests multiple times before take-off, the last being when passengers take the ladder to the aircraft.

“In this case, the procedure was not followed and police and Bureau for Civil Aviation Security have been informed,” the official said.

Indigo spokespersons refused to comment.