A 40-year-old man managed to sneak onto a Lion Air plane in Medan’s Kualanamu Airport, raising questions about security at the second largest airport in Indonesia.
On Sunday, the man, identified as AF, snuck through all of the airport security checkpoints despite not possessing a ticket or boarding pass of any kind. He made it all the way onto Lion Air flight JT 384, which was about to depart to Jakarta.
“AF successfully snuck past security officers and walked towards Gate 8 at the domestic departures terminal. AF then successfully snuck into the airplane’s cabin by taking advantage of the carelessness of Lion Air’s boarding officers, who were busy boarding other passengers,” said Transport Ministry Aviation Agency spokesman Agoes Soebagio, as quoted by Detik yesterday.
It is believed that AF was able to skip the notice of Lion Air personnel simply by blending in with other passengers while they were queueing to board.
But once AF was on board, he occupied a seat that was already assigned to a paying passenger. When that passenger came, the cabin crew asked to see AF’s boarding pass, which he obviously did not have.
AF was then detained by airport security and handed over to the local police.
After the police interrogated AF, they ruled that he is mentally disabled and released him to his family on Monday.
“He did not have a specific reason (to board the plane). He’s like a confused person. He boarded the plane but he didn’t know where it was heading,” said Teuku Fathir Mustafa, head of the Crime Investigation Unit at the Deli Serdang Police, as quoted by Detik.
Meanwhile, state-owned airport management firm PT Angkasa Pura II pledged to step up security measures at Kualanamu as a result of this incident.
