Victoria police defend 90-minute delay to remove passengers

Australian police have come under fire for leaving hundreds of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH128 passengers waiting on the tarmac for 90 minutes after a bomb scare forced the flight to return to Melbourne.

Victoria Police Chief Commissioner Graham Ashton denied that there were any delays in officers boarding the aircraft on Wednesday night.

However, he acknowledged that the passengers were left frustrated as they waited for the authorities to take control of the situation.

Australia’s South Burnett Times reported that Ashton was grilled during a press conference over the wait, adding that he was also questioned over whether the Sri Lankan man who made the threat should have been allowed to board the flight after being released from psychiatric care on the same day.

The report said one man on board the flight said the passengers were “s **** ing themselves” as the man who had tried to storm the cockpit lay in an aisle clinging to a device he claimed was a bomb, while being restrained by passengers during the delay.

However, Ashton said he was satisfied, stating that the response to the incident was acceptable. Officers stationed at the airport assessed the situation as soon as they were notified, he said, adding that the response was initially treated as a counterterrorism operation.

He said police had to consider comments by the offender about blowing up the plane, and the possibility of a second offender and multiple explosive devices.

“Decisions had been made about what was the safest way to get passengers off the plane, and essentially that did occur, and all passengers were safely removed from the plane. There’s been some commentary this morning, I saw, about the time it took to get passengers off the plane.

“Once we were satisfied we were dealing with one offender and device that was looking increasingly unlikely to be an explosive device, the decision was made to get the passengers off, and that was done,” Ashton said.

He said he understood passengers would have grown frustrated throughout what he conceded was a 90-minute lead-up to officers boarding the aircraft.

“I understand if you are on a plane in that situation, it could seem like a long wait, in particular with a lot of unknowns. In some of those circumstances, if we had an incident where there were further explosives that were triggered, we could have had a mass casualty incident.

“There were 211 passengers on that plane, plus crew, and we could have had a very serious incident. That was avoided through having a proper approach of getting the passengers off.”

Ashton said there were no delays caused by inaction or by “some stuff-up in any systems”, and claimed if the incident had happened in Europe or the United States, “they would probably be still on the plane now”.