I just received the news update that follows.
I cant believe that the man isnt being held either in Bali or returned to Australia, if as the report states he appeared to be threatening to hijack a plane. My thoughts are with the other passengers who must have been very scared throughout the flight. I dont think people like him, 31 year old NSW man, deserve a second chance! No more flying for him, in my books!
Drunk free after terrorising flight to Bali
By Paige Taylor
July 7, 2004
A DRUNK Australian tourist who terrorised passengers on a Bali flight, declaring he had explosives and threatening to hijack the plane, is yet to be questioned by Australian Federal Police.
Children were among the holidaymakers who wept with fear during the tirade, in which the man allegedly announced loudly he was going to crash the plane and kill everyone on board.
Scare... a passenger has been restrained after making threats during a Garuda flight to Bali / file
According to passengers, he then headed for the cockpit, shouting that he had a weapon and explosives.
The man was later stopped by another passenger, who choked him until he fell unconscious.
Federal Transport Minister John Anderson yesterday confirmed his department had launched an investigation.
No charges have been laid against the 31-year-old NSW man, who was released at Denpasar airport a few hours after the alleged violent and drunken tirade on a Garuda Indonesia flight from Perth to Bali last Wednesday morning.
A spokesman for Mr Anderson said the matter could still be referred to the AFP depending on the result of an investigation by the Department of Transport and Regional Services.
The investigation would consider which laws may have been broken and outline a possible case against the man. "We take this very seriously," the spokesman said.
Garuda initially doubted reports the man had made terrorist threats, but is now waiting for the results of the inquiry.
Three passengers on board the flight told how panic set in as the man headed for the cockpit yelling threats.
Passenger Frank Hughes, from Busselton in southwest Western Australia, said an elderly woman began reading the Bible during the frightening scene. A young woman became paralysed with fear and had to be carried from her seat, Mr Hughes said.
"People thought they were going to die," he said.
Mr Hughes said he was shocked that AFP officers were not waiting in Bali for the man.
Instead he was escorted from the plane by two airport security guards.
The man was detained at Denpasar airport and released the same day without charge, according to the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.
Fellow passenger Habby Heske - a Perth martial arts teacher and action movie actor - said he choked the man unconscious and took him to the back of the plane, where he guarded him with two other men for the rest of the flight.
Mr Heske said a pair of the airline's handcuffs broke and the man began using them as a weapon as he waved his arm around violently. The man also urinated on cabin walls, headbutted overhead cabinets and continued threatening to kill people, Mr Heske said.
Mr Heske, who is still holidaying in Bali, said he had since seen the man walking around the Balinese resort of Kuta.
Garuda refused to allow the man on to a connecting flight to Amsterdam and is investigating the possibility of blacklisting him from flying with the airline in future.