AVIATION

14 August Sidney, Australia

A 45-year-old man was arrested by Australian Federal Police (AFP) and other passengers on MH122 Airbus-A330 flight from Sydney to Kuala Lumpur were safely evacuated from a flight after the aircraft turned around and flew back to its departure point due to the man’s erratic behavior. The passenger on board a Malaysia Airlines flight began shouting at passengers, “Are you slaves of Allah?” The man, who says his name is Mohammed, called himself a “slave of Allah,” before challenging other passengers nearby to repeat that they are also “slaves of Allah.” The man pointed his finger at passengers, shouting, “Say it!” Another video clip shows the man kneeling in prayer after laying out his prayer mat in the aisle of the plane. A passenger on the flight said the man “unzipped his backpack, put his hands in, made barely veiled threats about having something dangerous in it screaming at the top of his lungs right next to my seat.” Members of the flight crew reportedly examined the bag and did not find anything suspect. The plane landed back in Sydney and was isolated at the end of a runway. “An emergency response plan was enacted and an evacuation was initiated once it was deemed safe for passengers and crew,” an AFP spokesman said. The captain of another aircraft at the airport told passengers their flight would be delayed a couple of hours. “He just announced the situation in Sydney just got worse and is a high risk security situation,” a story in the Daily Mail Australia said. A passenger on the Malaysia Airways flight tweeted, “Fire trucks all around. Fool that threatened staff must be blacklisted.” The plane was in the air about two hours when the Australian Federal Police (AFP) were called to meet the plane on arrival. “As a result of this afternoon’s incident, there have been 32 domestic flights cancelled (16 inbound plus 16 outbound), with delays of up to 90 minutes for other domestic flights,” a Sydney Airport spokesperson said. “Currently no international flight cancellations. Passengers are encouraged to check with their airline regarding the status of their flight.”