JEDDAH: Habib Hussain, an Indian sweeper at Madinah airport, triggered a major security debate in India when he sneaked into an Air India flight AI3420 bound for Jaipur on Friday. He was arrested by Indian police at Jaipur airport after the plane landed safely.

Speaking about the bizarre incident, Air India’s station manager in Jeddah, Deepak Anand, brushed aside all blame, saying “the Indian flag carrier was not at fault as the stowaway was supplied to our airport handling agent National Handling Services (NHS) by a subcontractor to handle extra Haj flights. Hussain’s work entailed cleaning the aircraft and he had a valid airport security card for the security-cleared zone where the aircraft are parked.”

Barring this unfortunate incident, “Our Haj operation is going smoothly and the last Haj flights will depart on Dec. 31 and Jan. 3 from Jeddah and Madinah respectively... We have instructed our crew to check all toilets and other nooks to ensure no such incident takes place in the future,” Anand said.

He added that the airline has sought explanation from its ground-handling agent as to how Hussain managed to remain on board the aircraft after having performed his duties.

“It seems Hussain boarded the aircraft and while performing his duties locked himself in a toilet,” Anand said.

Sources said a flight attendant discovered him hiding in a toilet because the door was locked for some time and people could not use it.

But some eyewitnesses said that Hussain emerged from the toilet 45 minutes after takeoff and sat on an empty seat. His clothes, the uniform of the company, gave him away as a stowaway and the crew ascertained this from their flight manifest.

Hussain told the crew that he was an Indian national and was desperate to fly home as he was “dissatisfied with his employment conditions” with the sub-contractor.

The commander of the flight, after satisfying himself that there was no safety or security threat to the 273 passengers on board, decided to continue to fly to Jaipur.

The Air Traffic Control in Jaipur was informed and police were waiting for Hussain, a native of Moradabad in India’s northern state of Uttar Pradesh, when the flight landed. The police have filed a case against him under the Passport (Entry into India) Act.

Hussain told police that he was being harassed by his employer at Madinah airport. “I wanted to return to India because I was not being paid regularly, and my employer had also confiscated my passport,” he said.

Hussain was on Sunday interrogated by Rajasthan police, which said the airline was to blame for the incident and it was planning to file a case of “gross negligence” against it.

However, according an Air-India statement, the airline has not been informed by the police of any action against the flight’s crew. Air India spokesman Jitender Bhargava said only authorized personnel were allowed to enter aircraft after stringent security checks.

“There is no practice of checking toilets or other areas to look for hidden passengers,” he said. The Bureau of Civil Aviation Security has ordered a probe into the incident.