Questions abound in the bizarre tale surrounding Aditya Singh, the man found living at O'Hare International Airport for nearly three months. The biggest is the most obvious: How could security personnel at O'Hare, one of the world's busiest airports, fail to notice someone living in a secured area, turning it into his own Airbnb?
The Jan. 16 arrest of Singh, 36, evokes comparisons to "The Terminal," the 2004 movie in which Tom Hanks plays an international traveler with an invalid passport who lives at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport for nine months. Singh's case is quite different. In the movie, authorities allowed Hanks' character to live at the airport while they figured out what to do with him. Singh is charged with felony criminal trespass to a restricted area of an airport, along with misdemeanor theft.
In October, Singh was supposed to head from Los Angeles to India with a stopover at O'Hare. But he never made it to India and instead began living in a secured part of O'Hare, hanging out in gate areas and strolling through Terminals 1, 2 and 3, authorities say. Friends reached by the Tribune said Singh posed no danger but was afraid to travel due to COVID and viewed his time at the airport as a "karmic lesson."
For food, he relied on handouts from passengers. So was it Gold Coast Dogs or Burrito Beach? What did he do with all that time on his hands? Did he take a stroll through O'Hare's Aeroponic Garden? And about those passengers who helped him: Didn't they find his circumstances a little off? Somewhat suspicious in the "see something, say something" era of air travel?
He was O'Hare's invisible man until Jan. 16 when two United Airlines workers noticed him and asked for his identification. He showed them an airline worker ID badge that had been reported missing Oct. 19, the day before Singh's arrival, according to the Chicago Department of Aviation.
Now Singh's in a heap of trouble. But so is O'Hare.
Security at airports is serious business. In the post 9/11 era, there have been terrorist attacks at airports in Moscow (2011), Karachi (2014), Brussels (2016), Istanbul (2016) and Paris (2017), among others. Airports are prime soft targets. The potential for mass casualties is large, and a strike against an airport is a heavy blow to a vital component of a city or country's infrastructure.
Though Singh's lengthy stay was a glaring breach of security, there's no evidence he posed any threat, authorities say. "While we won't speculate on Mr. Singh's motivations at this point, he decided to remain in the secure area, and made every effort to blend in as a passenger and airline employee until his arrest," a city Aviation Department spokesman told us. Singh "did not leave the secure side, and at no time did he pose a safety or security threat to the airport or traveling public.
"A multiagency investigation bringing together our federal and local law enforcement partners was initiated immediately and is continuing," the spokesman said.
We, as well as the rest of the city, eagerly await the results of that investigation. How was it that O'Hare personnel didn't notice — and flag — the same face lingering around airport concourses and gates for nearly three months? Alderman Matt O'Shea, chairman of the City Council Aviation Committee, stressed the need for an "in-depth investigation to make sure this doesn't happen again. … For someone to go relatively undetected for an extended period of time, it's cause for concern."
O'Hare helps define Chicago as a global city. It is a driver of commerce, and it is a reason corporations relocate headquarters here. Chicago cannot afford to have doubts looming about its basic security.
