Psychiatric patient in aeroplane ‘bomb’ saga

A SRI LANKAN student who tried to enter a plane cockpit with what he said was a bomb before terrified passengers overpowered him, had been released from psychiatric care just before boarding the aircraft, Australian police said yesterday.

Passengers on Malaysian Airlines flight MH128 from Melbourne to Kuala Lumpur said they feared for their lives when the 25-year-old rushed towards the cockpit shouting that he wanted to “blow the plane up”.

“He had been released from psychiatric care [on Wednesday], and from there we believe he purchased a ticket on this plane,” Victoria state police chief Graham Ashton said.

Several passengers wrestled the man to the floor, Ashton said.

The crew gave them seatbelts to hog-tie him before the plane made an emergency landing in Melbourne. Armed officers from an elite police unit boarded the plane, handcuffed the man and escorted him off the aircraft.

The suspect, who lived in Melbourne and was studying to be a chef, said he was carrying a bomb but the device was actually a bluetooth speaker, Ashton said.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said the incident was not being treated as terrorism-related.

The unnamed man was charged with making threats and false claims, and endangering an aircraft’s safety.

He was due to appear in court later yesterday.