Mentally ill man scales airport wall, walks up to aircraft

A 22-year-old man scaled the perimeter wall of the Mumbai airport and walked towards the main runway as a SpiceJet aircraft was waiting in a nearby bay for take-off

A 22-year-old man scaled the perimeter wall of the Mumbai airport and walked towards the main runway as a SpiceJet aircraft was waiting in a nearby bay for take-off around 1.30pm on Thursday. He was detained by Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) personnel.

HT Image

Airport officials later ruled out any security threat, as the man — identified as Kamran, a resident of Sion — they said had entered the airport premises to “watch aircraft”.

The police confirmed that he was mentally unstable and had forgotten to take his medication.

“He had no intention to trespass and so no FIR has been registered. We gave him food and his brother came with medicines,” said a police officer. “We have checked his medical papers. We also spoke with his doctor to confirm he is mentally ill.”

“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,” said a DGCA official.

Mumbai airport has installed a Perimeter Intrusion Detection System (PIDS) that alerts the control room of intrusions. However, according to a source, Kamran jumped from an area that did not have PIDS.