Delay questioned

Passengers criticise lengthy tarmac wait

POLICE are facing questions as to why terrified passengers waited 90 minutes to be evacuated from a plane subject to an alleged bomb threat over Melbourne.

Sri Lankan Manodh Marks, 25, is charged with endangering the safety of an aircraft and making false threats after a midair drama late on Wednesday that forced Malaysia Airlines flight 128 bound for Kuala Lumpur to turn back to Tullamarine.

Authorities have ruled the incident was not terrorism.

Marks, living in the Melbourne suburb of Dandenong on a student visa, allegedly made a threat and moved toward the cockpit, but was grabbed by passengers who tied him up.

“In that one second, there were four of us out of our seats and we pounced on him,” passenger Scott Lodge said.

Some of the 337 passengers on board said the man claimed to have explosives in a device shortly after takeoff on Wednesday night.

Police later confirmed the man was holding a harmless bluetooth speaker. Marks was released from psychiatric care on the same day he bought a ticket and boarded the flight, police said.

Passengers have criticised authorities for making them wait 90 minutes on the tarmac not knowing if there was a bomb on the plane, before special operations police stormed the aircraft.

“If there was a bomb on that plane we should have been evacuated from it. Instead we sat there,” passenger Stan Young told reporters.

But Victoria Police Chief Commissioner Graham Ashton said there were initial reports there was possibly more than one offender or device on board.

“(I) absolutely understand if you are on a plane in that situation, it could seem like a long wait,” he said, later confirming it took 54 minutes for officers to board the aircraft after arriving at the airport.

“We have to make sure all possibilities are taken into account, including the possibilities of co-offenders, or, if there was an explosive device, the possibility of there being other explosive devices where the sudden removal of the passengers could cause difficulty.”

Marks refused to face a magistrate late on Thursday, with a lawyer telling the court there would be no bail application. He is due back in court on August 24.

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