Man Makes Bomb Threat Aboard Malaysia Airlines Flight, Heroic Passengers Stop Him From Rushing Cockpit

Correction Tuesday, June 2 12:00 p.m. EDT: This article previously reported that multiple passengers helped restrain a passenger who made a bomb threat aboard the flight. Malaysia Airlines told International Business Times in a statement that the “airline’s cabin crew with the help of one passenger managed to restrain the passenger who was immediately handcuffed and subdued.”

The crew and a passenger aboard a Malaysia Airlines flight departing from Melbourne, Australia are being praised as “heroic” after thwarting a man who rushed the cockpit and threatened to detonate a bomb. The man responsible for the incident — 25-year-old Sri Lanka native Manodh Marks — had reportedly been released from a Melbourne psychiatric hospital the same day.

NPR reported Thursday that Malaysia Airlines Flight MH128 to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia was forced to return to Melbourne Airport after the incident, which occurred after the man began making threats and storming the plane's aisle. The flight was about 10 minutes into the flight when the passenger became erratic. Holding an object identified as either a speaker or charging device — which police later said was not an explosive — Marks reportedly started shouting, “I'm going to blow this f****** plane up.”

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When the man charged the aisle and tried to enter the plane’s cockpit, a passenger and crew aboard the flight stirred to action and were able to wrestle him to the ground. Andrew Leoncelli, a witness, described Marks’ purported explosive to the BBC as a “very unusual object.”

“I’ve never seen anything like it. It was the size of a watermelon, it was huge, it was black,” he told local radio station 3AW in an earlier interview. “It had two sort of like antennae stuff coming off it, but it also looked like it had an iPhone jack in it, so it could have been just like a beatbox thing.”

“He was saying, ‘I’m going to the blow the f–ing plane up! I’m going to blow the plane up!’” Leoncelli added. “He was agitated, is the best description — 100 percent, he was agitated.”

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According to Victoria Police Chief Commissioner Graham Ashton, Marks was released from a psychiatric hospital the same day before purchasing the ticket to Malaysia. While police initially treated the incident as a possible terrorism case, they ultimately determined it was “a case involving a mental health issue.” Marks was reportedly in Australia studying to be a chef on a student visa, according to Ashton.

While passengers were thankful to have the situation contained, some expressed concern at the 90-minute delay post-landing as the airplane taxied to a location far from the terminal. Passengers who numbered around 330 were forced to wait as counter-terrorism officers determined whether more explosives or other suspects were on board, NPR reported.

“If we had an incident where there were further explosives that were triggered, we could have had a mass casualty incident,” Ashton said, defending the move. “Decisions had to be made about what was the safest way to get passengers off the plane.”

In a statement to International Business Times, Malaysia Airlines wrote: “An investigation led by Australian authorities is currently underway and Malaysia Airlines wishes to extend its appreciation to everyone involved during the emergency situation.”