Man Arrested After Making Bomb Threats on Sydney Flight to Malaysia

Two passengers walk past a Qantas jet at the International terminal at Sydney Airport on March 10, 2020 in Sydney, Australia. Mark Evans/Getty Images

A man has been charged after he claimed to have explosives on an international flight from Sydney to Malaysia.

The Australian Federal Police (AFP) said the 45-year-old man, Muhammad Arif from Canberra was charged with false statements to damage the aircraft and not complying with the cabin crew’s safety instructions.

The offences carry a maximum penalty of 10 years imprisonment and a fine of over $15,000, respectively.

Mr. Arif was expected to appear at Downing Centre Local Court on Tuesday morning, but he refused to leave his cell.

“Apparently, he is refusing to come out of his cell and they'll have to extract him if he is to come to court,” Magistrate Greg Grogin said.

“We won’t force him out of his cell.”

Mr. Arif lawyer said his client had serious mental health issues and was “not in the right state of mind.”

What Happened

It comes after Mr. Arif allegedly began yelling references to Islam and gesturing at the backpack on his chest.

One video footage posted on social media shows the man yelling at the crew, while another shows the man asking passengers if they are a “slave of Allah.”

The Malaysian Airlines flight MH122 took off from Sydney International Airport at about 1 p.m. on Monday before the disturbance occurred.

The captain made the decision to turn back and arrived back at Sydney Airport at about 3:45 p.m. The plane remained isolated at the end of a runway for hours before police made the arrest.

Some passengers complained on social media that authorities took too long to respond.

“We landed back in Sydney at about 3:45. We are STILL on the plane with this guy. Who has [acted] up again and tried to take on a passenger who stood up to him. Lord help us if we ever have a more serious incident,” Sammi Marks wrote on Twitter (now known as X) at 5:50 p.m.

Another passenger, Ilya Vlasov, posted, “A [expletive] lunatic is holding us and half of the airport as hostages, and there is zero sign of security forces around. Is their plan just to wait till he falls asleep?”

All 199 passengers and crew were later evacuated from the aircraft.

The incident caused delays and cancellations for domestic travel outbound from Sydney Airport. No international flights were cancelled.

Scary Situation

New South Wales (NSW) Premier Chris Minns said the police faced a “really difficult set of circumstances” but was open to having a review of the response to the incident.

“A lot of these things are easy to look back in hindsight,” he said.

NSW Police Commissioner Karen Webb commended the cabin crew for their work in controlling the situation. In response to criticism that police moved in too slowly, she noted that officers can never make assumptions in such a situation.

“You don’t know whether this person was acting alone or he actually had other support on the plane or outside the plane,“ Ms. Webb told 2GB radio. ”The protocol in Australia is to negotiate, we don’t storm planes. This is not TV, it’s not the movies, we want to protect the lives of all passengers.”

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton commended the flight crew’s calm and collected response to the situation.

“It is hard to imagine how you could get a device through the level of scanning that now applies to airport travel, but you never know,” he told Nine News. “You would be petrified if you were on that plane.”

Minister Bill Shorten said he couldn’t imagine how the passengers felt during such a “disaster.”

“How terrifying if you are trapped in one of those big aluminium tubes and you have got someone ... going crazy,” he told Nine.

AAP contributed to this report.