Flier sprints on runway, spreads panic

The passenger, whose name was given as Sherfuddin, aged 30, was quickly whisked away by the Central Industrial Security Force personnel on duty and on questioning was found to be apparently “mentally disturbed,”  sources said.

After collecting his boarding pass and travelling a short distance toward the plane in the private airlines bus, Sherfuddin suddenly took everyone by shock with this quixotic act, sources said. Fortunately, a relative travelling with him helped to explain the matter to the officials.

Sherfuddin, returning from Abhu Dhabi, was apparently depressed over the “ill-treatment meted out to him by the company” he had been working for, the sources said. The passenger, from Kozhikode in Kerala, has since been admitted to a private hospital in suburban Pallavaram near the airport.

The incident caused a flutter in the backdrop of the terrorist  threat to vital installations across the country. However, top officials of the Airport Authorities of India, when contacted for more details, were tight-lipped about the incident.