An armed teenage boy managed to breach an airport security fence at Avalon Airport close to Melbourne in the Australian state of Victoria on Thursday afternoon and attempted to board a packed Jetstar flight to Sydney with a loaded shotgun.
The 17-year-old suspect is believed to have climbed through a hole in the perimeter fence at Victoria’s second-busiest airport, located around 31 miles from Melbourne, and made it all the way across the tarmac to a Jetstar Airbus A320, which had just finished boarding passengers.
Police believe the boy managed to escape the attention of airport workers and security personnel because he was dressed in high visibility workwear similar to what ground staff at the airport wear while airside.
The unnamed suspect breached the security fence at around 2:20 pm on March 6 and slowly made his way towards the Jetstar plane, where police were alerted to an incident at around 3 pm.
After managing to get onboard Jetstar flight JQ610 with a loaded shotgun, he was quickly restrained by passengers and even the plane’s captain, who pinned him to the ground and disarmed him.
Police are yet to establish whether there is any link to terrorism.
“No doubt this would have been a very terrifying incident for the passengers of that plane, and Victoria Police really commend the bravery of the passengers who were able to overpower that male,” commented Superintendent Michael Reid from the Victoria Police Force.
Passengers onboard the plane said they first noticed something was amiss when a flight attendant started to question the suspect at the boarding door because he didn’t have an airport ID badge.
Initially, the passengers just thought the man was an airport worker, but he then became agitated, and within seconds, he brandished a shotgun.
A passenger sitting at the front of the aircraft immediately leaped up from his seat and put the suspect into a chokehold, as the Captain also came running to restrain the man, along with several other passengers.
In a statement, Jetstar said it was working with the local police to “urgently understand what has occurred.”
The statement continued: “The safety of our passengers and crew is our number one priority and we can confirm there are no reported injuries,” a spokesperson said.”
The flight was, perhaps unsurprisingly, canceled.
