Passenger attempts to enter coughpit on MH128

[Major]

MH128 returned to MEL shortly after takeoff when a passenger attempted to enter the coughpit. He was restrained by Cabin crew and other passengers

Malaysia Airlines flight turns back to Melbourne after 'threatening' passenger tried to enter coughpit

 

[juddles]

.......a passenger attempted to enter the coughpit.....

tut tut tut!

 

[zig]

Appears to be related to mental health issues rather than terrorism. Media is already speculating about lax security screening that allowed him to carry his 'device' onboard.

 

[Denali]

I was reading the radio transcript with a ex footballer guy that was on the plane - Im betting there was a lot of *beeps* for the swearing.

 

[Melburnian1]

I have posted individual delays that occurred to other international flights under AirAsiaX, Cathay Pacific, Emirates and Singapore Airlines individual airline delay/ cancellation threads elsewhere on AFF.

While QF9 has a terrible timekeeping record, it was on time out of MEL on Wednesday 31 May and snuck out not long before MH128 pushed back.

What is not clear is whether passengers had to return to landside for all these flights and be rescreened through security. The typical delay for outbound flights was two and a half hours.

I have also not seen a media report indicating how many passengers were on board MH128. The video shot by passengers tends to show only the aisles and not the middle seats.

 

[RooFlyer]

This is curious, and while I'm loath to take 'initial reports' too seriously, it does sound odd (time-wise). As the story may be pay-walled:

Police and security officials are under pressure to fully explain a lengthy delay in apprehending a man accused of staging an attempted airline hijacking at Melbourne.


Police are refusing to say how long passengers caught in the overnight hijacking drama at Melbourne Airport were forced to wait before anti-terror offices boarded the Malaysia Airlines jet and arrested the alleged perpetrator.
Superintendent Martin Goode from the Australian Federal Police said there was a delay between the plane landing and officers entering the aircraft while police assessed the risks.

Reports from passengers suggest the delay may have been between an hour and 90 minutes.

Former Melbourne AFL footballer Andrew Leoncelli said passengers waited 90 minutes before police boarded the plane.

Passenger images showed several anti-terror police storming the jet, wearing a mixture of camouflage and dark Special Operations Group clothing.

They were brandishing assault rifles and special night vision glasses.

 

[Pushka]

I heard this morning it was a 60 minute delay - from the police rep. Their issue was safety. Clearly nothing to do with passenger safety though. 60 minutes given it was the passengers who seemingly apprehended the guy would seem like a lifetime. I'd be asking questions why.

 

[RooFlyer]

As the delay seems to be confirmed to the extent of 60 mins, I've been trying to think of scenarios where, with the guy well restrained on board and the situation no doubt communicated to those on the ground (ie standing just outside the aircraft door!), the authorities need to plan and get ready for something else bad happening and take an hour to do it.

While I'm the type of person who thinks that the security lot and police are (nearly) always right, I also think that sometimes commanders think "right, this is an opportunity to put some training into effect" so they loaded up to the max.

Edit: From SMH on-line:

When the plane landed, passengers were left on the tarmac for about 90 minutes, with very little information from airline staff about what was happening, Mr Leoncelli said.
Eventually, heavily armed security staff wearing camouflage uniforms and helmets entered the plane and removed the man.

As he waited on the plane, Mr Leoncelli recorded a video.

"There's a giant black object on this plane, a crazy guy wants to blow it up, who was subdued," he said.

"The police are sitting four kilometres away, haven't moved in 25 minutes. This is an absolute joke. Seriously, help us."

During the lengthy wait on the tarmac, others took to Instagram to express their frustration and fear.

"We have been waiting in the plane for an hour, still waiting for the police," one passenger wrote. "The bomb may go off any time."

 

[Melburnian1]

NSW police badly botched the Lindt siege terrorist attack in December 2014. The Johnson and Dawson families were rightly highly critical; the coroner was more muted.

Now we have Victoria Police and Australian Federal Police having held what seems to be a 'mothers' club meeting' on the tarmac to decide what to do.

The community pays an enormous amount of money to these police and has an expectation that they be properly trained. Incidents in Australia are not just recent: the Hilton Hotel, Sydney bombing in Sydney was many years ago.

Is it too much to ask for these police to be competent and in such circumstances to recognise that delays can be disastrous?

I agree with Pushka that questions need to be asked. What would happen if it was someone with a working 'device' not just something that overnight on MH128 was actually, in the end, allegedly harmless?

 

[juddles]

.....I also think that sometimes commanders think "right, this is an opportunity to put some training into effect" so they loaded up to the max.

I don't think so No doubt they had to wait for some sort of clearance or permission from some God or government agency. The sort of personality type that make up these "SWAT" teams is exactly the opposite of people who wait and wring their hands and think things through 57 times - I suspect the officers in that team suffered the delay even more than the passengers!!

Edit: bad speeling

 

[RooFlyer]

You may well be right, juddles. Possibly some off-site commander too restrained by decision making processes to make a decision and not able or willing to delegate to those at the scene.

Still ... an hour?

 

[juddles]

...Is it too much to ask for these police to be competent and in such circumstances to recognise that delays can be disastrous?....

Geez! Isn't that opinion being a bit harsh seeing none of us even have an inkling what the time period was for?

Delays can be disastrous, and so can rushing things. In "most" policing seige situations the time tested best practice to reduce death and injury is to WAIT. Rushing in just gets people killed very quickly.

 

[RooFlyer]

But this wasn't a 'seige'. The perp was restrained, the device isolated, comms were clear from inside the plane (that's an assumption, but a good one I think) and the plane was on the ground. Sure, caution is good, as is thinking through the scenarios. But an hour?

 

[juddles]

You may well be right, juddles. Possibly some off-site commander too restrained by decision making processes to make a decision and not able or willing to delegate to those at the scene.

Still ... an hour?

An hour does seem hard to understand given that "apparently" the crew would have been communicating the situation (of the man being restrained).

Unfortunately this could be a situation where there is some protocol that we, the onlookers, cannot know as it would defeat the effectiveness of that protocol.

But my money is someone high up the chain not wanting to become responsible. Which is what their position actually requires then to accept.

 

[juddles]

In any case we can all have lots of fun here before too many "true facts" come out

 

[mrs.dr.ron]

I don't think so No doubt they had to wait for some sort of clearance or permission from some God or government agency..........

Maybe they had to wait for some sort of acknowledgement from the Malaysians as it was their plane ?? - and given the hour ?? - or it could have just been a stuff up :shock:

 

[Punky]

NSW police badly botched the Lindt siege terrorist attack in December 2014. The Johnson and Dawson families were rightly highly critical; the coroner was more muted. Now we have Victoria Police and Australian Federal Police having held what seems to be a 'mothers' club meeting' on the tarmac to decide what to do. The community pays an enormous amount of money to these police and has an expectation that they be properly trained. Incidents in Australia are not just recent: the Hilton Hotel, Sydney bombing in Sydney was many years ago. Is it too much to ask for these police to be competent and in such circumstances to recognise that delays can be disastrous? I agree with Pushka that questions need to be asked. What would happen if it was someone with a working 'device' not just something that overnight on MH128 was actually, in the end, allegedly harmless?

What a disgraceful post.

 

[Denali]

Maybe they had to wait for some sort of acknowledgement from the Malaysians as it was their plane ?? - and given the hour ?? - or it could have just been a stuff up :shock:

Im thinking because of the time, it was a matter of who gets to wake the boss up to get the "go" but first we have to find the guy that knows the guy that has the phone numbers.

I know they have policies and chain of command but traffic control phones airport police (federal?) who phones Victoria police who phones area commander who phones district/state commander ect. In the meantime, SWAT?? is called, debriefed/airframe maps ect. Its not going to happen in 10mins.

Plus Im sure they also 98% believed there was no real threat to the pax or plane by explosion so they had time to make a planned entry.

 

[Skyring]

Once the button is pressed, the book has to be followed. The cops have to get kitted up, briefed, moved to the site. And nobody wants the cops to be injured, so they'll have to get approval, and be double-checked at each stage. Just to make sure. Go into a firefight and your body armour isn't buckled properly, it's too late to fix.

Easy to criticise in hindsight. This is MH we're talking about. Maybe the flight crew is screwy, maybe the Russians are having another go. Who knows?

Certainly not the police.

 

[fairbasa]

We have the benefit of hindsight knowing it wasn't a real device.

I'm sure the reason for parking it away from the terminal and the delay was they were running through their procedures as if the device was real. I would question their choice of firearms in such a confined environment though...