A Malaysia Airlines flight from Sydney to Kuala Lumpur was forced to return on Monday due to a "disruptive passenger" on board, according to Channel News Asia (CNA). Flight MH122 took off from Sydney Airport just after 1pm and came back about three hours later. A video of the incident has surfaced on social media that show a man wearing a backpack threatening passengers and staff. There were 199 passengers and 12 crew members on the flight, the outlet further said.
"In the interest of safety, the commander of the flight made a decision to return to Sydney," a Malaysia Airlines spokesperson told CNA.
"The disruptive passenger has now been detained by local police," the spokesperson added.
Australian media outlet Nine News said that the 45-year-old man had threatened to "blow the plane up". However, when crew members checked his backpack, they did not find any explosives, the outlet added.
Australian Federal Police (AFP) described the situation as an "emergency incident" on X, formerly known as Twitter.
The AFP is responding to an emergency incident at Sydney International Airport.
— AFP (@AusFedPolice) August 14, 2023
An update will be provided at an appropriate time.
Later, in a statement, the police said that the man was arrested and all the passengers evacuated. They also said that there was no threat to passengers or the flight.
The man was arrested without incident and the rest of the passengers were released from the plane about three hours after it landed, the police said.
The airline said passengers would be transferred to the next available flights.
"Malaysia Airlines wishes to thank the authorities for their immediate response and to passengers for remaining calm and cooperative during the ordeal," an airline official quoted as saying by ABC News.
No international flights were cancelled due to the incident, it added.
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