Man charged after terrifying mid-air plane siege as top cop defends police response

Dual Pakistani-Australian citizen at centre of a mid-air siege on a Malaysia Airlines flight is charged as top cop defends police response time to terrifying incident.

• Air drama means delays for days
• Fury at cops amid plane drama

A dual Pakistani-Australian citizen at the centre of a mid-air siege on a Malaysia Airlines flight has been charged.

Muhammad Ali Arif, 55, will face Downing Centre Local Court after being charged with two counts of making a false statement and not complying with directions over the chaotic scenes on flight MH122 at Sydney International Airport on Monday.

Ali Arif allegedly claimed he had a “bomb” in his bag and began ranting about Islam onboard the Malaysia Airlines flight, sparking a horrifying three-hour long siege that only ended when armed police stormed the plane.

Panicked passengers were forced to endure the man’s rants and worry about what he really had in his backpack for several hours as they sat in their seats on the tarmac after flight MH122 returned to Sydney International Airport about 3.45pm on Monday.

NSW Police Commissioner Karen Webb on Tuesday denied first responding officers took too long to resolve the situation.

#Sydney Airport is suffering at the hands of this lunatic as he has taken #MH122 hostage. Praying for everyone's safety and well being.

Where is Airport security?! Its been well over an hour since the plane has landed back!!! pic.twitter.com/rSWExD9EXm

— Jawad Nazir ✈ (@jawadmnazir) August 14, 2023

“I don’t think so,” she said to Ben Fordham on 2GB.

“We were notified at about 4.15pm yesterday and it was resolved at about 6.15pm. Given it’s a volatile situation, and unpredictable, we didn’t know the severity of the incident. You have to deal with what you learn about the passenger — we didn’t know if there was a bomb. AFP had to work through all those considerations.”

Commissioner Webb underlined the importance of not escalating the situation.

“I praise the crew for what they did in keeping the passengers calm … to de-escalate the situation to the point that we got this matter resolved in three hours,” she said. “I think three hours is pretty good. I know it’s pretty terrifying. The protocol in Australia is to negotiate. We don’t storm planes — this is not TV, it’s not the movies — and we want to protect the lives of all passengers.”

The flight, originally bound for Kuala Lumpur, took off about 1pm and made a mid-air U-turn only an hour into the flight when the man began to raise the concerns of his fellow passengers and flight crew.

After the captain made a decision to turn back the AFP were made aware of the emergency security situation and the plane was isolated in one corner of the airport.

Then man (left) speaks to a fellow passenger.

Videos from onboard the plane soon began to hit social media showing the man, with a white beard, arguing with flight attendants.

He could be seen wearing a backpack in reverse over his stomach, and saying: “My name is Mohammed, slave of Allah.”

“Are you a slave of Allah? Are you? Say it. Say it! Are you a slave of Allah?” the man continued, seemingly asking a passenger.

That passenger could then be heard replying: “Yes I am”.

For several tense hours the situation unfolded with live media and social media coverage, before a convoy of vehicles finally drove towards the airplane shortly after 6.15pm.

At 6.30pm the first passengers began to disembark the plane, with the man wearing blue who had caused the siege led out first.

Newcastle man Muhammad Zubair was sitting in aisle 21, the same row as the unruly passenger, and said he originally believed the man was just a nervous flyer.

Mr Zubair said the passenger looked anxious and was behaving erratically in the terminal before boarding.

#MH122 Drop scene
Every one off the plane.
Police told to leave all the belongings on plane #Sydney#SydneyAirportpic.twitter.com/akb3ce5ceO

— Muhammad Zubair (@chzaib) August 14, 2023

Once all passengers were seated, Mr Zubair said the man refused to put his backpack in the overhead lockers when asked, telling the airline crew “there is (a) Quran in the bag.”

Mr Zubair said the cabin crew decided to let the man keep his backpack on his lap, but after the plane took off and the seatbelt sign turned off, he stood up and started to yell.

Mr Zubair said the passenger screamed “don’t touch me” and “you don’t know what’s in this bag” when he was confronted by the cabin crew, before saying “it might be a bomb.”

When the cabin crew continued to question the man, the passenger yelled “there is a bomb in my bag” Mr Zubair said.

The flight’s captain then made an announcement over the address system that the flight would be returning to Sydney Airport, but that there was no time frame for how long they would be stranded.

The plane departed Sydney Airport but returned soon after.

After several hours the man at the centre of the siege began to tell the cabin crew his claims of a bomb were simply “a joke”.

“This lunatic now says it was a joke, he was testing muslims. This idiot, he brings shame to other fellow muslims,” one man tweeted,

Flight attendants moved other passengers away from the man as they spoke to him, videos of which continued to be uploaded online.

“You’re embarrassing … it hurts my heart, it burns my heart,” the man could be heard to say in another video.

#MH122
They have moved people away from the guy.#SydneyAirportpic.twitter.com/7owKzclwgr

— Muhammad Zubair (@chzaib) August 14, 2023

A passenger nearby engaged with the man, asking him: “Do you even have a heart?”

One man whose friend is on the flight said he was being told the man was “getting aggressive”.

“This lunatic is getting aggressive and poor people onboard are still waiting for security to get in and take him … through the right process,” he tweeted.

#MH122 This guy should have been stopped at the gate before boarding, his actions were unsettling from start. #Sydney#SydneyAirportpic.twitter.com/6y9bUy3ksD

— Muhammad Zubair (@chzaib) August 14, 2023

Sydney man Jawad Nazir, whose friend was onboard for a work trip, said the passenger had waited until the plane hit cruising altitude before he began to make his disturbing claims.

“My friend said he waited, 20 to 25 minutes … he was yelling at the passenger next to him, had the backpack on his chest,” Mr Nazir said.

“He started saying ‘don’t come close, if you fear Allah don’t touch the bag’.”

“It’s been a few hours now, everyone’s getting a bit antsy … there are children onboard.”

The flight attendants onboard had been “very professional” and prevented the passenger from accessing the cockpit, Mr Nazir said, with Malaysia Airlines staff herding passengers to the back of the plane to protect them as the passenger became more aggressive.

The plane on the tarmac at Sydney Airport. Picture: TNV

A practising Muslim himself, Mr Nazir called the passenger “embarrassing”.

“I’m gutted and feel extremely bad, all it takes is one person to tar everyone with the same brush … I feel bad for the people on the plane, no one deserves to go through something like this.”

A women tweeted the incident “started early in the flight with constant chanting over and over again. A few people were quizzical and looked around but were being polite about it”.

“Then this guy launches out of his seat with a backpack strapped ON FRONT and starts losing it. Yelling at the top of his lungs and ‘preaching’ incomprehensibly.

“He was stalking the aisles getting in the faces of passengers. Cabin staff came through to contain him and he kicked off even more.

Police rush to Sydney Airport to respond to the incident. Picture: TNV

“(He) unzipped his backpack, put his hands in, made barely veiled threats about having something dangerous in it screaming at the top of his lungs right next to my seat. Never been so scared.

“(He) arced up again and tried to take on a passenger who stood up to him. Lord help us if we ever have a more serious incident.”

As passengers waited to disembark, passenger Sammi Marks, who is seated five rows ahead of the man, said the mood onboard was “very subdued”.

“Passengers are starting to get really upset now. People are asking to be given food, tea, water,” Ms Marks said.

“It’s been a long time sitting on the tarmac with very little communication about what happens next.”

pic.twitter.com/oREXYgrYP1

— Crude Macro 🛢️ (@MacroCrude) August 14, 2023

Ms Marks praised the cabin crew for their efforts to defuse the situation.

“The cabin crew member who is with the guy is honestly amazing. He’s gone from having to physically restrain him to now sitting with him and speaking with him calmly and with kindness,” she said.

She said the man appeared to be becoming more alert and was “coming out” of his previous state of mind.

“When he’s lucid again, it must be an awful thing to realise what you’ve done during a schism,” Ms Marks said.

Police detain the man. Photo: Twitter

Ms Marks, who was on the flight for a work trip, said passengers onboard the “packed” plane had now been ordered to disembark but “without hand luggage”, including wallets and documents, much to their dismay.

The incident is just the latest in the history of Malaysia Airlines and comes just six years after a similar incident onboard another of the carrier’s flights, MH128, at Melbourne Airport in June 2017.

On that occasion a 25-year-old passenger claimed to be carrying a bomb and attempted to force his way into the cockpit of the plane.

People onboard witnessed the man attack an air hostess just minutes after take-off before he was heard shouting “I’m going to blow up this plane”.

Passengers and flight staff managed to tackle the man to the ground and restrain him, before heavily-armed police stormed the plane and arrested him, and the situation ended without incident.