A 17-year-old boy has been charged by Victoria Police with numerous offences after he allegedly boarded a Jetstar flight at Avalon Airport armed with a shotgun and knives.
The event took place onboard Jetstar flight 610 as it was about to leave Avalon for Sydney with around 150 passengers on board. Victoria Police confirmed they responded to the incident at around 2.50pm on Thursday.
Video taken by passengers nearby shows the youth wrestling with a quick-thinking Jetstar captain, staff and a passenger who managed to subdue the teenager.
The Ballarat youth is understood to have climbed through a hole in a security fence before walking onto the plane under the guise of a maintenance worker.
Daneil Defino, the passenger who took the video told 7News, “we just boarded, he came on with two bags saying he needed to do maintenance.
“That’s when the flight crew started to get nervous because there wasn’t anything planned.”
Barry Clark, the passenger who wrestled the boy told ABC Radio, “He (the boy) got agitated and before we know it there was a gun, a shotgun appeared and I was worried about it being shot.
“All I could do… was get the gun out of the way, break that, throw it down the stairs, or try to, and then put him in a hold and throw him to the ground until the police come.”
Charges laid
Police have charged the teenager with a number of offences including unlawfully taking control of an aircraft, possessing a firearm and orchestrating a bomb hoax. He will face the children’s court at a later date.
Jetstar released a statement following the incident.
“We are working with police and airport authorities as they investigate a security incident at Avalon Airport on Thursday,” it said.
“The safety of our passengers and crew is our number one priority and we can confirm there were no reported injuries.
“We know this would have been a very distressing situation and we are sincerely grateful to the customers who assisted our crew to safely manage the situation.”
Feature image: 7News YouTube – ‘Airline imposter storms plane armed with gun – How a hero passenger took him down’
