Stowaway flies Malaysian Airlines

Stowaway flies Malaysian Airlines

KUALA LUMPUR: A 24-year-old Malaysian successfully sneaked into a Malaysia Airlines aircraft and flew to Indonesia's resort island Bali without a ticket and travel document, a report said on Saturday.

The Star newspaper said the man managed to evade security guards and dozens of closed-circuit monitoring cameras at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport, located some 55 kilometers (34 miles) south of the capital Kuala Lumpur.

But he was arrested by alert Indonesian security officials at Denpasar Airport and immediately deported to Malaysia. The newspaper did not state when the incident happened.

Zahedi Ayob, Sepang district police chief, whose jurisdiction includes the airport, confirmed that a man was being detained for traveling to Bali without a travel document. He declined to elaborate.

The Star said that the man, who does not have a criminal record, had previously worked at airport for a private cleaning company.

"We are baffled as to how he managed to gain access after having his job terminated, an airport security official said.

"We are also checking whether others had helped him as a person would need some time to study the security procedures at the airport before pulling off such a stunt," he said, adding that this was the first time such an incident had happened since the airport began operation in 1997. AFP