Myanmar man slips past security and onto tarmac at Bangkok airport

A man from Myanmar who claimed to be a convict on the run was arrested on the tarmac at Bangkok's international airport after having slipped through security, authorities said Friday.

Police said the man, who identified himself as 28-year-old Zu Aung, was found Tuesday aboard a Turkish Airlines jet that was parked in a waiting zone before picking up passengers bound for Istanbul, said police Lt. Col. Pranachai Sattawut.

The man, who had no travel documents, told police he had climbed into the plane using a ladder leaned up to its door, Pranachai said. An engineer inspecting the plane spotted the man sitting alone in the cabin and alerted authorities, Pranachai said.

The man told police through an interpreter that he had escaped from a Malaysian prison and walked for two months until arriving Tuesday evening at the airport. Police questioned the veracity of his story as the trip from the Thai-Malaysian border to Thailand's capital, Bangkok is about 1,000 kilometers (600 miles), Pranachai said.

Serirat Prasuntanond, the airport's director-general, denied the man had entered the plane but said airport authorities were investigating how he had managed to slip through security and make his way to the tarmac.

"The man was near the plane, not on the plane," Serirat said. "We are investigating how this man was able to access the airport's off-limit area. It's a mystery to me."

The man faces up to three years behind bars for trespassing and illegal entry.