Mixed Results.

This week it seems that what could have been a terrorist disaster was handled magnificently by the public - and botched badly by our security authorities.  Passengers on a Malaysian Airlines flight aboard an Airbus A330 bound for Kuala Lumpur lifted off from Melbourne airport and began a climb into the night sky when one of the passengers accessed an overhead locker and retrieved something from his backpack.   Clutching a large black object he announced that it was a bomb and tried to access the flight deck.

The reaction was swift.  A number of male passengers leapt from their seats and wrestled him to the floor. His hands and feet were secured with ties and belts and the aircrafts captain reported the incident and his intention to return to Melbourne airport.   He requested police meet the plane to deal with the intruder.

The plane landed safely and taxied to a secure location on the tarmac where Federal police handed the incident to the Victorian state police.  At 11-53 pm they were summonsed via the D 24 radio control centre.   The Critical Incident Response Team arrived at the airport - at 12-23 am.   during this time the aircraft sat idle with its doors sealed.

Nothing happened until 1-20 am when police stormed the plane.   Passengers could see police congregated on the tarmac but there was no emergency evacuation and they were conscious that they were sitting in an aircraft with a fuel load to reach Malaysia.  The " bomb "  turned out to be some sort of radio speaker, but whether other explosives were involved was still an unanswered question.

We are supposed to be on high alert for possible terrorist incidents after events in Paris and Manchester and yet this was not handled well.   It seems there were multiple reasons for the tardy response by the unit that had first responsibility.   There was an initial delay when an officer on-call failed to respond to his phone, and then the police squad was unable to locate weapons and body armour.

Fortunately, this incident turned out to be a man with psychiatric problems who had only been released from a mental ward that very day, and that probably needs work because of the obvious risks involved.  The passengers had the expectation that the incident would end swiftly once the intruder was safely brought under control and were less than impressed by the time they were left sitting on a darkened airport tarmac.   They expected that at the least they would exit the plane while it was searched for any remaining explosives.

Hopefully, this incident may lead to our response to what could be terrorist incidents getting a thorough re-evaluation.  This time, luck served us well, but if that had been the real thing the outcome might have been tragically different !