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Knife sparks Aus airport scare
25/06/2003 13:57 - (SA)
Canberra - Australian authorities have launched an investigation into how a boxcutter knife was left in the seat pocket of a Qantas flight from Perth airport in Western Australia, officials said on Wednesday.
The government also announced it would further step up security at Australian airports, giving officers powers to frisk passengers and seize belongings.
The knife - reported to be similar to those used to hijack the jets involved in the September 11 attacks in the United States - was found by a passenger aboard Flight QF77, a 767-300, which had just left for Singapore from Perth International where it had landed from Jakarta late on Tuesday.
The passenger alerted the cabin crew and the aircraft was turned around and brought back to Perth where Australian federal police began an immediate investigation.
A Qantas spokesperson said all of the 233 passengers aboard the flight were taken off the aircraft and rescreened, causing a 90-minute delay.
Passengers had to be rescreened
She said only that there had been "a security issue" aboard the flight, passenger safety was not compromised and the aircraft was on its way by 09:00 after a 90-minute delay.
"Routine procedures were followed, including the rescreening of all 233 passengers," she said. "There was no threat to passengers at any time."
A spokesperson for transport minister John Anderson said the department of transport and Qantas had launched an investigation into the incident.
"If it was found to have originated in Jakarta, we'll have to have a chat to the Indonesian authorities."
Attorney-general Daryl Williams announced that the government would soon introduce legislation to boost the powers of Australian protective service (APS) officers to enable them to search passengers in strictly controlled circumstances and to seize belongings.
The number of explosive-detection airport dog teams would also be tripled to 18.
Three arrested
The episode aboard QF77 came just 14 days after a Sydney man was arrested for brandishing a Stanley knife on board a Virgin Blue flight from Sydney to Cairns.
A week earlier, a man was arrested for making verbal threats on a Virgin Blue flight shortly before take-off from Melbourne.
And, on May 29, a man armed with two sharpened wooden stakes allegedly tried to hijack a Qantas jet between Melbourne and Launceston.
Unemployed computer analyst David Robinson, 40, is before the courts charged with attempting to hijack a plane and two counts of committing an act of violence against two crew.
- AFX
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