Malaysia Airlines flight forced to land in Sydney after disruptive passenger’s outburst.
A Malaysia Airlines plane was forced to return to Sydney Airport less than two hours into its journey after a passenger was “threatening staff and passengers”.
In a video shared on social media, the man called himself a “slave of Allah” before challenging other passengers on flight MH122 to repeat that they are also “slaves of Allah”.
He becomes heated, pointing his finger at passengers and shouting at one passenger: “Say it!”
A witness on board 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 subsequently examined the bag and did not find anything dangerous in it.
Nonetheless, the captain turned the plane back, landing in Sydney just before 4pm.
The plane was isolated at the end of a runway, while cabin crew moved passengers away from the threatening man to another part of the aircraft.
Australian Federal Police (AFP) boarded the plane and arrested the 45-year-old man.
In a statement to CNN, Malaysian Airlines said the flight carrying 194 passengers and five crew members landed safely at 3:47 p.m. local time, about two hours after it took off.
“Malaysia Airlines flight MH122 on 14 August 2023 returned to Sydney International Airport due to a disruptive passenger on board. In the interest of safety, the commander of the flight made a decision to return to Sydney,” the airline said.
Sydney International Airport said in a statement that 32 domestic flights, including 16 inbound and 16 outbound, were cancelled with other domestic flights experiencing delays of up to 90 minutes.
“Currently there are no international flight cancellations,” the airport said.
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