A Virgin Australia Airlines flight en route from Brisbane to Bali, Indonesia, was forced to make emergency landing after the flight crew reported an attempted hijacking by a passenger.
The Boeing 737-800 was approximately 180 nautical miles away from Denpasar International Airport (about 30 minutes before the scheduled landing time), when a 27 year old Australian passenger, Matt Christopher Lockley, started banging at the cockpit door and tried to break in. The flight crew hand-cuffed him, took him to the cabin crew area and sent a mayday signal to the control towers in Makassar and Denpasar, indicating a possible hijacking attempt. The Bali airport authorities then prepared for an emergency landing protocol for the flight VA41, which was carrying 139 passengers and 6 crew members.
According to a Transport ministry official Herry Bakti, the emergency signal was received at about 2pm local time. The authorities from Virgin Australia confirm that the pilot had sent the standard signal code for ‘unlawful interference’, after which standard emergency response protocols were adopted.
The plane made an uneventful emergency landing and the Bali Police Chief, Inspector Benny Mokalu confirms that none of the passengers or crew members were harmed. The Indonesian military troops arrested Lockley, after the plane touched the ground.
Matt Christopher Lockley hails from Queensland, Australia and holds a driving license and a plumbing industry council card. The cabin crew reported that he looked ‘unstable’ and ‘paranoid’ during the flight. Police officials said that he claimed that he was hammering the cockpit door because he wanted to take some medicines from his luggage.
Heru Sudjatmiko, Virgin Australia’s Bali manager maintains that a drunk passenger tried to enter the cockpit which forced the emergency landing of the plane. It was not a hijacking attempt, it was a ‘miscommunication’. “I repeat, this is just a miscommunication. How the miscommunication occurred, I cannot answer because I wasn’t there. But it’s not true to say that the plane was hijacked…. I don’t know exactly what happened when the pilot communicated with the air traffic controller at Ngurah Rai,” he said.
Lockey is being investigated by the local police and it is not clear what charges will be made against him.
To include the featured image in your Twitter Card, please tap or click their icon a second time.
A pilot’s decision to allow his kids to play with a plane’s controls on a 1994 flight from Moscow to Hong Kong ended up in tragedy
To include the featured image in your Twitter Card, please tap or click their icon a second time.
The small medical plane that crash landed at Raleigh-Durham International airport yesterday “bounced,” according to the Federal Aviation Administration.
To include the featured image in your Twitter Card, please tap or click their icon a second time.
Airline’s Airbus A320 will also fly footballers on tournament trips, including Champions League games
To include the featured image in your Twitter Card, please tap or click their icon a second time.
All 75 people on board died when Aeroflot Flight 593 crashed at 160mph
To include the featured image in your Twitter Card, please tap or click their icon a second time.
To include the featured image in your Twitter Card, please tap or click their icon a second time.
To include the featured image in your Twitter Card, please tap or click their icon a second time.
Video captured by a passenger shows the liquid first trickling and then streaming down the aisle, soaking the carpeting.
To include the featured image in your Twitter Card, please tap or click their icon a second time.
Middle Tennessee sees no shortage of car break-ins, but plane break-ins are more rare. However, the Metro Nashville Airport Authority told News 2 a suspect was taken into custody in Missouri for st…
To include the featured image in your Twitter Card, please tap or click their icon a second time.
Federal officials say the two people aboard the cargo plane reported the fire moments after takeoff and requested to return to the Fairbanks airport.
To include the featured image in your Twitter Card, please tap or click their icon a second time.
A federal aviation official says one of the two pilots of an airplane that was laden with fuel reported a fire on board shortly before the aircraft crashed and burned
To include the featured image in your Twitter Card, please tap or click their icon a second time.
Nearly four years after a civilian skydiving aircraft collided with a Marine Corps MV-22 Osprey sitting on a San Diego runway, the U.S. government has settled the civil case after suing the businesses involved for damages
To include the featured image in your Twitter Card, please tap or click their icon a second time.
The single-engine plane crashed just after 10am on Wednesday morning on a secondary runway near Terminal 1 at the North Carolina airport.
To include the featured image in your Twitter Card, please tap or click their icon a second time.
An All Nippon Airways aircraft carrying a total of 211 people landed safely at an airport in Hokkaido in northern Japan, despite smoke emitting from one of its wings.
To include the featured image in your Twitter Card, please tap or click their icon a second time.
Two people were feared dead after a rare cargo plane crashed in the far north of the United States on Tuesday, troopers in Alaska said.
To include the featured image in your Twitter Card, please tap or click their icon a second time.
Two people are feared dead after a plane crashed in Fairbanks, Alaska, on Tuesday.
To include the featured image in your Twitter Card, please tap or click their icon a second time.
It is not known yet how many people were on board.
To include the featured image in your Twitter Card, please tap or click their icon a second time.
The plus-size passenger refused to give up an extra seat on a plane to a toddler.
To include the featured image in your Twitter Card, please tap or click their icon a second time.
Report says Russia may be behind GPS interference over Baltic Sea since last August
To include the featured image in your Twitter Card, please tap or click their icon a second time.
Emergency services were called to Sunshine Coast Airport after reports there was smoke coming from the cockpit of a Bonza plane on Tuesday afternoon.
To include the featured image in your Twitter Card, please tap or click their icon a second time.
VH-EBN (pictured) is the first of Qantas’ A330-200LR aircraft to be upgraded with Viasat-capable wi-fi antennae, and is expected to finish its three-week retrofitting this week. The remainder of Qantas’ international widebody fleet will be progressively refitted over the next couple of years.
To include the featured image in your Twitter Card, please tap or click their icon a second time.