Real-life 'The Terminal': How one man lived in Chicago airport for three months

The traveller said he was afraid to fly back to Los Angeles because of the coronavirus pandemic

A booking photo provided by the Cook County Sheriff's Office shows Aditya Singh of California, who told police that the coronavirus pandemic left him afraid to fly. (Cook County Sheriff's Office via AP)Show less

A man who was allegedly living in Chicago's O'Hare International Airport for three months has been arrested.

In what seems like a real-life interpretation of Steven Spielberg's 2004 blockbuster The Terminal, airline passenger Aditya Singh was living in the security zone of Terminal 2 at O'Hare International Airport since October last year.

Having landed in Chicago, US on a flight from California on October 19, Singh told authorities that he was too scared to fly back home because of the coronavirus pandemic.

A man lived in Chicago's O'Hare International Airport for three months because he was too afraid to fly. Courtesy Chicago Department of Aviation

According to prosecutors, Singh acquired an airport employee's misplaced credentials, which he showed to two United Airlines staff when they questioned him on Saturday, January 16.

As the pass had previously been reported stolen by an airport operations manager, the airline crew alerted authorities and Singh was taken into custody.

He has since told prosecutors that he found the employee identification card, but is being charged with felony criminal trespassing and theft.

On Monday, January 18, the Chicago Department of Aviation said that the incident remains under investigation, but that the man had not posed a security risk to the airport or the travelling public.

Local news stations in Chicago reported that Singh had survived on food given to him by strangers.

In Steven Spielberg's 2004 hit film 'The Terminal' Tom Hanks plays a man who is stranded in an airport after his passport becomes invalid. Courtesy IMDb

In the film The Terminal, Tom Hanks' character Viktor Navorski survives on crackers with condiments when he is stranded at New York's John F Kennedy International Airport with an invalid passport.

While Singh was reportedly living at an actual airport, Spielberg didn't have quite such a realistic set for his movie.

Despite travelling around the world to find an airport that would let him film there for the length of the production, the director had to eventually admit defeat and build his own airport set in a sprawling hangar at Los Angeles Palmdale Regional Airport.