Malaysia Airlines jet turns back after bomb scare in Melbourne

A Malaysia Airlines plane, with 337 people onboard, was forced to return to the airport here when a mentally-ill Sri Lankan passenger threatened to detonate a bomb after allegedly trying to force his way into the cockpit, officials said today.

The 25 year old man was subdued by the crew and passengers who tied him up with belts.

The Kuala Lumpur-bound flight MH 128, which left Melbourne at 11:11pm, was forced to return and make an emergency landing 30 minutes after it took off from Tullamarine Airport late last night.

The man was arrested by airport security after the plane landed and is now in police custody.

Heroic passengers and crew

“We believe that the actions of the passengers and crew were heroic,” Victoria Police Superintendent Tony Langdon was qouted as saying.

“They managed to calm the situation, allowing the aircraft to return safely and we can’t commend them highly enough,” Langdon said.

Photographs on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation website showed black-clad armed officers on board the plane.

He said the incident was not terror-related and the man was known to the police due to his history of mental-illness.

No bomb, just an electronic device

Langdon said the man was carrying an electronic device that police quickly realised was not a bomb. “He had a piece of equipment which, for all intents and purposes is something that everybody would be carrying around on a daily basis.”

A passenger sitting in business class, who identified himself as Andy, told Melbourne commercial radio station 3AW that the arrested man had threatened to “blow the plane up.”

Former AFL player Andrew Leoncelli, who was a passenger on the flight, said the man screamed, “I’ve got a bomb and I’m going to f***ing blow the plane up,” before flight attendants and other passengers tackled and restrained him.

The Australian Associated Press (AAP) news agency said that in air traffic control audio posted online, a male voice can be heard saying: “We have a passenger trying to enter the cockpit.”

About three minutes later the same male voice can be heard saying “the passenger claiming to have an explosive device, tried to enter the cockpit, (and) has been overpowered by passengers.”

“However we’d like to land and have the device checked,” the voice said.

There was no hijack

Malaysia Airlines in a statement said the aircraft turned back “after the operating Captain was alerted by a cabin crew of a passenger attempting to enter the cockpit.”

“Malaysia Airlines would like to stress that at no point was the aircraft ‘hijacked’,” it said.

“MH128 safely landed in Melbourne airport at 11.41 pm (local time). Following the incident on MH128, the disruptive passenger has been apprehended by airport security. Malaysia Airlines together with the Australian authorities will be investigating the incident,” it said.

Passenger images showed several anti-terror police storming the jet, wearing a mixture of camouflage and dark Special Operations Group clothing.

They were brandishing assault rifles and special night vision glasses.

Malaysia Airlines said the plane’s passengers would be put up at hotels and offered another flight.

Flights affected at Melbourne airport

Melbourne airport said inbound and outbound flights had been affected and advised passengers to check with their airlines.

None of the Malaysia Airlines flights have left the airport today morning, but all eyes are on a flight scheduled to fly to Kuala Lumpur at 1:55 pm as a potential option for last night’s passengers to get on their way.

Flight Centre staff have confirmed the flight is a routine flight and one of the airline’s two flights that leave to Kuala Lumpur each day.

Victoria Police chief commissioner Graham Ashton said that the man was being interviewed by police and was expected to be present in the Melbourne Magistrate’s Court later today.

He said the man had been a voluntary patient at the psychiatric facility.

In a statement, the Australian Federal Police said the man had been charged with endangering the safety of an aircraft and making threats or false statements.

The incident comes months after Canberra called off the search for missing flight MH370 carrying 239 passengers and crew, after a vast underwater hunt off Australia’s west coast failed to find the plane.

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