The crew of an Austrian Airlines flight from Košice International Airport (KSC) in Slovakia to Vienna International Airport (VIE) in neighboring Austria made an unlikely discovery upon boarding their aircraft in the early hours of Thursday morning. Specifically, they were greeted by a male stowaway in the cabin of the Embraer E190 regional jet that was set to operate the flight back to the Austrian capital.
The man had reportedly gained access to the small commercial aircraft after entering the airport’s terminal and then scaling a fence to access the tarmac, where the Austrian Airlines jet was parked. The alarming incident delayed the flight’s departure from Košice back to Vienna International Airport by two hours, with local media outlets later reporting that the man may have been a psychiatric patient.
According to reporting on the matter by The Slovak Spectator and One Mile At A Time, the incident began to unfold at around 1:00 AM local time on the morning of Thursday, July 23. At this point, a Slovakian man in his 50s is said to have entered the terminal building and treated himself to food and coffee from several closed but unlocked bars at the airport. He then tried to make a query about a flight.
At this point, an airport employee told him that he would have to come back later, as, with no flights operating in the middle of the night, none of the check-in desks were open. He then walked away and was captured on CCTV scaling a perimeter fence and walking around the airport’s tarmac, eventually climbing a set of stairs that had been left next to an Austrian Airlines Embraer E190, which he boarded. Simple Flying reached out to Austrian Airlines, with a spokesperson confirming that:
“The incident is currently the subject of an ongoing investigation, and the exact circumstances have not yet been fully clarified. All necessary measures were taken to eliminate any potential risks and ensure the safe continuation of flight operations. These actions were carried out in close coordination with Košice Airport and the relevant local authorities.”
Having accessed the interior of the Embraer E190 via its unlocked cabin door at the top of the stairs, the man is then said to have fallen asleep in one of the seats. His slumber was eventually interrupted by the arrival of the Austrian Airlines crew who were set to fly the jet back to Vienna on Thursday morning. They reportedly arrived just after 4:00 AM local, with the flight, OS654, set to leave at 5:25 AM.
Upon his discovery, the man is reported to have asked the crew if the jet had taken off yet. His unexplained presence prompted the flight’s Captain to request the security services at the airport to carry out an inspection of the jet. This even involved the use of sniffer dogs to rule out the possibility that the man had brought any explosives on board. Once given the all-clear, the flight departed at 7:36 AM local time.
According to historical tracking data made available by Flightradar24, the service landed in Vienna at 8:18 local time, just 42 minutes later, an hour and 58 minutes after its planned arrival time of 06:20. OS654 is one of two daily Austrian Airlines flights from Košice to Vienna. The other, OS652, is an afternoon departure that takes off at 2:45 PM and lands at 3:40 PM. For this flight, Austrian favors the larger E195.
The carrier is using a Boeing 777 for its unique paint scheme.
Following the incident, the man was reportedly detained by the police, who were unable to find any form of identification on the man, but did locate documentation suggesting that he was a psychiatric patient. In any case, the episode highlighted very serious safety vulnerabilities, with an airport employee telling local media that “the people monitoring the security cameras must have fallen asleep.”
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Quoting Košice Airport spokesperson Juraj Tóth, the Slovak Spectator said that security measures at the facility have “since been tightened.” For the guests of the impacted flight, the two-hour delay to a service that was only set to be in the air for less than an hour will no doubt have made for a frustrating start to their Thursday, particularly for flyers with connections. However, safety always comes first.
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