Man roaming in Mumbai airport taxiway causes aircraft to go around

A man roaming around on the Mumbai airport taxiway Thursday evening created a security scare.

The presence of the man was reported by crew on board a SpiceJet which was taxiing at the time. He was then picked up by airport security officials.

A spokesperson at the airport confirmed the incident.

Separately, a spokesperson at the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) said the man, identified as Kamran, lives in the adjoining slums and scaled an emergency gate at the far end of the main runway to get to the airside. The man, said to be mentally unstable, has been handed over to the local police authorities.

The CISF is responsible for providing security to 300 industrial units, government infrastructure projects, facilities and establishments, including airports, located across the country.

Around the same time, the main runway at the airport was shut down for what the spokesperson called “scheduled maintenance”, done every week on Mondays and Thursdays. Flight operations were shifted to the alternate runway.
Mumbai airport, India’s second busiest airport and its most congested, has two intersecting runways, only one of which can be in use at one time.