Sydney Flight Turns Back Over Unruly Passenger

A commercial airline flight from Australia to Malaysia returned to Sydney on Monday after an emergency incident, reports the AP. Malaysia Airlines flight MH122 left Sydney Airport at 1:40pm for an eight-hour flight to Kuala Lumpur and landed back on the runway at 3:47pm, Nine News reported. Someone purporting to be on board tweeted that a person was "threatening staff and passengers," Nine reported. "In the interest of safety, the commander of the flight made a decision to return to Sydney," a Malaysia Airlines rep said.

The airline said a passenger holding a backpack had threatened to "blow the plane up." Crew had checked the backpack and found no explosives, it added. Australian Federal Police said in a statement they were responding to an "emergency incident" at the airport, but provided no other details. The plane was parked on the end of a runway hours later with emergency vehicles nearby, Nine reported. Sydney Airport said it was supporting "emergency agencies in the management of an incident." "The airport is operational with flights arriving and departing," an airport statement said.

(More Malaysia Airlines stories.)