A man has been arrested after allegedly threatening passengers onboard a Malaysia Airlines flight bound for Kuala Lumpur, forcing the plane to turn back to Sydney.
Flight MH122 left Sydney’s International Airport with 199 passengers and 12 crew on board at 1.40pm on Monday.
It landed back on the same runway just two hours later after one of the passengers, a 45-year-old man, allegedly became aggressive and started threatening those onboard.
“My name is Mohammed, slave of Allah,” the man can be heard telling staff in vision captured by terrified passengers.
“Are you a slave of Allah? Are you? Say it! Say it! Are you a slave of Allah?”
Passengers claim the man also made threats of having a bomb inside a backpack strapped to his chest.
After landing, passengers were stuck on the tarmac for three hours before Australian Federal Police were finally able to take the man into custody without incident.
“The AFP will not divulge operational matters, however, an emergency response plan was enacted and an evacuation was initiated once it was deemed safe for passengers and crew,” The AFP said.
“There is no impending threat to the community.”
