Plane leaving Australia forced to land over bomb scare

Passenger on Malaysia Airlines flight to Kuala Lumpur tries to enter cockpit; plane turns around after just 14 minutes in air

A Malaysia Airlines flight bound for Kuala Lumpur was forced to return to Melbourne late Wednesday after a “disruptive” passenger on board tried to enter the cockpit and claimed he was carrying a bomb, Malaysia’s deputy transport minister said.

“It is not a hijack. One disruptive passenger tried to enter the plane’s cockpit,” said Deputy Transport Minister Abdul Aziz bin Kaprawi. “The passenger, a Sri Lankan national, claimed to have a bomb. But it was not a bomb but a powerbank,” he added.

A statement from Malaysia Airlines said the captain on flight MH128 “was alerted by a cabin crew (member) of a passenger attempting to enter the cockpit,” and the plane landed back in Melbourne where police responded to the incident.

“Safety and security are of Malaysia Airlines’ utmost priority,” the company said.

Flightradar24, an aircraft monitoring site, said on Twitter that other flights bound for Melbourne were diverted to other airports. It said MH128 landed after being airborne for 14 minutes.

Flight Aware, a live tracking website, shows the flight path of MH128 on May 31, 2017 from Melbourne. (Flight Aware)

Malaysia Airlines has been hit with a number of tragedies in recent years, including the disappearance three years ago of flight MH370 en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8, 2014, carrying 239 passengers and crew.

Earlier this year, Australian, Malaysian and Chinese authorities called off the search for the plane.

In July 2014, Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 from Amsterdam en route to Kuala Lumpur was shot down by a Russian Buk surface-to-air missile fired from rebel-held territory in Eastern Ukraine, according to Dutch crash investigators. The attack killed all 283 passengers and 15 crew on board.