NEW DELHI: Indian authorities are investigating how a man posing as a maintenance worker managed to board an Air India flight and hide inside the toilet undetected until after takeoff, a report said today.

The stowaway, Indian national Habib Hussain, boarded the aircraft last week in the Saudi city of Medina by pretending to be a cleaner, and then locked himself in the toilet, the Times of India reported.

The paper quoted eyewitnesses as saying Hussain emerged from the toilet 45 minutes after takeoff, but other sources said a flight attendant discovered him hiding because door had been locked for some time. The crew reportedly decided he was not a security threat to the 273 passengers on board, and the flight continued to its destination, the western Indian city of Jaipur.

Air India spokesman Jitender Bhargava told the paper only authorised personnel were allowed to enter aircraft after stringent security checks. “There is no practice of checking toilets or under seats to look for hidden passengers,” he said.

Hussain, a 26-year-old from Uttar Pradesh, told police he wanted to return from his job in Medina because he was not being paid regularly, but his employer had confiscated his passport. Hussain was arrested after landing and police superintendent Biju Joseph told the Times “legal action would follow against company officials. Arrests can’t be ruled out.” Joseph said routine pre-flight procedures had been “completely neglected.” The Bureau of Civil Aviation Security has ordered a probe into the incident, according to the newspaper.

The security breach is the latest bad publicity for state-run Air India.

In October, pilots and cabin crew were involved in a mid-air brawl in full view of passengers, and later that month the airline had to replace a drunk pilot who reported for duty.