SYDNEY (AP) – An airline flight from Australia to Malaysia returned on Monday to Sydney, where a disruptive passenger was arrested hours later in what police described as an emergency incident.
The emergency caused dozens of domestic flight cancellations and delays at Australia’s busiest airport.
Malaysia Airlines flight MH122 left Sydney Airport with 199 passengers and 12 crew aboard on an eight-hour flight to Kuala Lumpur and returned more than three hours later because of a “disruptive passenger,” the airline said.
“In the interest of safety, the commander of the flight made a decision to return to Sydney,” Malaysia’s national carrier said in a statement.
A news agency reported that a passenger holding a backpack on the Airbus A330 had threatened to “blow the plane up.” Crew checked the backpack and found no explosives, it said.
Australian Federal Police described the situation as an “emergency incident.”
45-year-old Muhammad Arif was arrested without incident and the rest of the passengers were released from the plane about three hours after it landed, a police statement said.
Muhammad Arif was charged later Monday, police said. They did not specify an offence.
The airline said passengers would be transferred to the next available flights.
“Malaysia Airlines wishes to thank the authorities for their immediate response and to passengers for remaining calm and cooperative during the ordeal,” the airline said.
Sydney Airport said some flights continued to land and take off while emergency agencies responded to the situation. No international flights were cancelled.
Muhammad Arif was charged on Tuesday with allegedly threatening to blow up the plane during a flight from Australia to Malaysia that returned to Sydney. Police arrested the Canberra resident and took him from the Airbus A330 on Monday, almost three hours after Malaysia Airlines flight MH122 returned to Sydney Airport.
Police allege Muhammad Arif had become disruptive and claimed to have explosives on board. He was charged with making a false statement about a threat to damage an aircraft and failing to comply with cabin crew’s safety instructions.
The charges carry a potential maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a fine of more than AUD15,000 respectively.
The airliner with 199 passengers and 12 crew aboard had left Sydney early Monday afternoon for an eight-hour flight to Kuala Lumpur. One of the passengers, Velutha Parambath, said the man had been drawing attention to himself before takeoff by praying aloud.
“At that point, we just thought he was praying for everyone. People just generally had a laugh,” Parambath, who was seated five rows behind the man, told Nine Network television on Tuesday.
But half an hour into the flight, the man became louder, stood up and started pushing and shoving passengers, Parambath said.
The man implied that he had explosives in a backpack.
“I don’t think he specifically said ‘bomb.’ But he was carrying his bag and he said, ‘I’ve got power in my arms,'” said Parambath, who had been travelling with his wife and three children.
Malaysia Airlines said the pilot decided to return to Sydney for safety reasons.
The passengers’ concerns escalated after they landed and spent almost three hours in the plane on a tarmac.
“All we saw were fire engines surrounding us and again people reading the news saying there’s potentially a bomb on the plane,” Parambath said.
New South Wales Police Commissioner Karen Webb defended the delay of almost three hours between when the plane landed and when two police officers handcuffed the suspect.
“We can never presume anything and we you don’t know whether this person was acting alone or he actually had other support on the plane or outside the plane,” Webb told Sydney Radio 2GB.
Most of the passengers are expected to continue their journey on a replacement flight MH122D on Tuesday afternoon.
