By the time Jetstar passenger Daniel Defina realised a teenager was trying to board his Sydney-bound flight armed with a shotgun, Victorian shearer Barry Clark and a pilot had already tackled the intruder to the floor.
Within seconds, the two men restrained the alleged 17-year-old boy. Clark put the teenager in a headlock, while the pilot of Jetstar flight JQ610, which was about to take off from Avalon Airport, emptied the boy’s tool belt.
Daniel Defina was sitting at the front of a Jetstar plane at Avalon Airport when an armed intruder entered the aircraft. He filmed the incident as it unfolded in front of him.Credit: Luis Enrique Ascui
Passengers on board the plane on Thursday afternoon when the incident took place then heard a chilling announcement come over the PA system.
“Attention passengers, this is your pilot. This is not an announcement that I usually have to make, but a man has boarded the plane with a gun, knives and a can of fuel.”
Defina also sprang into action, pulling out his phone and filming what was unfolding as his mum, who was seated next to him, cried in his arms.
The 18-year-old said his motivation to start filming was to document the major security breach for police.
His footage zooms in on the teenager while he is being restrained by Clark.
The boy appears dazed and expressionless, his eyes darting between the pilot and another staff member, dressed in hi-vis yellow vest, as they empty the intruder’s pockets.
A five-dollar note, cordless headphones and a brown leather wallet fall to the ground. Defina, wanting to document as much as possible, zooms in on the boy’s driver’s licence.
Underneath the teenager’s hi-vis jacket, he appears to be wearing a black suit and a tie.
“How is this possible?” a passenger can be heard asking in the video, incredulous at the events unfolding in front of them.
Clark, the pilot and another staff member can then be seen pushing the teenage boy face down on the ground before restraining his arms behind him and binding his wrists with cable ties.
Clark keeps his hands firmly on the back of the teenager’s neck.
“I reckon just leave him here,” Clark can be heard saying. “Don’t get him up until the cops come in. If something happens I don’t want to see anyone get hurt.”
One of the Jetstar employees asks Clark what happened and if the boy had a gun.
A still from Defina’s footage of the teenager being restrained by a Jetstar employee, Barry Clark and the pilot. Credit: Defina
“Yeah, a shotgun,” Clark says.
“Shotgun?” the staff member asks.
“Yeah, mate,” Clark responds.
Clark, a former boxer, managed to throw the shotgun down the stairs outside the aircraft with the help of a pilot and other passengers.
Defina, who was sitting in seat 1B, and heading back home to Sydney after celebrating his nephew’s second birthday in Melbourne, told this masthead the teenager allegedly said to employees on board “I just need to do something in there” as he pointed towards the cockpit.
“That’s when [the staff] started to get alarmed,” Defina said. “Because there wasn’t anything planned, no maintenance planned.”
Defina returned to Avalon Airport on Friday to fly home. Passengers were unable to retrieve their checked luggage after the incident because the plane was declared a crime scene. Jetstar offered passengers rescheduled flights at no extra cost.
Brooke Rumble was sitting 20 rows back with her father and eight-year-old daughter, and was on her way to visit her sick grandfather in hospital, when she heard a commotion up the front of the plane.
Rumble said a woman in front of her was crying hysterically, concerned about her friend who was sitting at the front of the plane.
Another passenger, who was in seat 14D, said they boarded the flight just after 2.30pm.
A security guard at Avalon Airport on Friday.Credit: Luis Enrique Ascui
“It was my first time in Geelong, and I was heading back to Sydney via Avalon,” said the passenger, who spoke on the condition that their name be withheld.
“I remember thinking what a big airfield for such a small airport that only had one flight going on at a time.”
The passenger said they sent their family a message telling them they had boarded at 2.37pm.
Minutes later, they saw the pilot race out of the cockpit and Clark wrestle the teenager to the ground, and wrote another message to their family. “I said to them ‘Some shit is going down here’.”
The Sydney Swans football club confirmed on Friday that the parents of its player Jake Lloyd were also on board the plane when the security breach occurred.
Barry Clark was on the flight with the parents of Sydney Swans player Jake Lloyd (pictured). The trio were heading to Sydney for Friday night’s presentation to mark Lloyd’s 250th AFL game.Credit: Wolter Peeters
The couple were headed to Sydney with Clark, who is a close friend of the family, to mark Lloyd’s 250th AFL match against Hawthorn at the SCG on Friday evening. The trio will be present for a presentation in the club’s rooms before the game.
The footballer said on Friday he was grateful his parents and everyone else on board the flight were safe.
“My thoughts are with everyone on board as it must have been a terrifying situation. It sounds like there were some incredibly brave actions from Barry and others to keep everyone safe,” Lloyd said.
“I’m grateful that my parents are OK and I can’t wait to see them when they arrive in Sydney.”
Barry Clark after he helped to overpower an armed teenage boy on a plane at Avalon Airport.
After the teenager’s arrest, Clark was standing on the tarmac, speaking with emergency services.
When he walked back into the airport, he was met with a rock-star welcome and resounding applause from those inside.
“Barry came inside with two firefighters, and everybody just erupted,” Rumble said. “Obviously, we were all so thankful for him to have saved all of our lives. Everyone wanted to buy him a beer.”
Clark later told reporters he “did what he had to do”.
Avalon Airport chief executive Ari Suss hailed the bravery of retired shearer Clark.
“I have declared him a recipient of free tickets for life at Avalon,” he said.
“I am looking after Barry. Someone suggested a statue, but I thought we could do better than that with free flights for life. I said to Barry that ‘I don’t think you appreciate the hero that you are and this is the least we can do for him.’”
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