A teenager armed with a loaded shotgun boarded a plane about to take off from an Australian airport on Thursday before being wrangled by terrified passengers, police say. Victoria Police were called to Melbourne's Avalon airport at 2:50pm local time after the suspect in high-visibility clothing allegedly snuck through a hole in the airport's fence, the Guardian reports. He may have been mistaken for a maintenance worker before walking up the stairs of a Jetstar plane holding 160 passengers waiting to fly to Sydney. A passenger seated in the first row said the teen became "agitated" under questioning from a flight attendant, then suddenly "a shotgun appeared."
"No doubt this would have been a very terrifying incident for the passengers of that plane, and Victorian police really commend the bravery of those passengers who were able to overpower that male," said police superintendent Michael Reid. He said "at least" three passengers had detained the 17-year-old, who was also wearing a tool belt. Upon seeing the barrel of a gun pointed toward the chest of the flight attendant, Barry Clark, a passenger seated in 1C, took action. "All I could do was get the gun out of the way, threw it down the stairs, and try to put him in a hold and throw him to the ground," he tells News.com.au. Another passenger said a pilot helped tackle the suspect, per the Guardian.
Reid said the shotgun was loaded. He did not confirm reports that knives and gasoline were also found but made clear how "very concerning" the security breach was. He said the teen had apparently acted alone, was not previously known to police, and has yet to be charged, per ABC Australia. Police are not currently treating the case as terrorism as "it's too early to establish that," Reid added. Jetstar said it was "working with police and the airport to urgently understand what has occurred" and confirmed no injuries were reported. (More Australia stories.)
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