Officers had to race nine kilometres to Avalon Airport to arrest a teenager who claimed to be carrying a bomb and was allegedly armed with a loaded shotgun and other weapons when he entered a Jetstar plane because state and federal police don’t have a permanent presence at the airport.
Avalon Airport has launched an urgent internal review of its security arrangements in response to the incident but insists all government-mandated measures were in place when the major security breach occurred on Thursday.
A still from passenger Daniel Defina’s footage of the teenager being restrained by a Jetstar employee, Barry Clark and the pilot.Credit: Nine
While airports in major Australian cities are patrolled around the clock by border officials and federal police, there is no permanent police presence at Avalon, where international flights depart and arrive daily.
Instead, the airport is guarded by private security officers.
“There will be learnings from this, and obviously, we stand ready to work through it,” Avalon Airport chief executive Ari Suss said on Friday.
“We have perimeter fencing to specification, and we take regular perimeter checks, and they were all logged.
“I have gone through all that, and there were no issues. But something has happened, and it’s often these close calls that do alert authorities.”
On Friday, the airport deployed additional guards and said it had upgraded security around the perimeter.
“Our main message is we want to reassure passengers that Avalon is safe, and they should continue on with their travel,” Suss said.
Australian Border Force staff only attend the airport, which is classified as a tier 2 regional airport by federal authorities, to manage ad-hoc international charter and cargo flights.
As calls for a review of the airport’s safety mount, the Home Affairs Department, Victoria Police’s counterterrorism command and the Cyber and Infrastructure Security Centre have all launched investigations into the breach.
Investigators believe the 17-year-old climbed through a hole in the airport’s security fence and walked to a Jetstar flight JQ610 with a stolen long-arm firearm and ammunition before claiming: “I’ve got bombs in my bag.”
Barry Clark after he helped to overpower an armed teenage boy on a plane at Avalon Airport.
The teenager, who was wearing a high-vis jacket over what appeared to be a black suit and tie, was tackled to the ground by passengers and crew moments after he boarded the Sydney-bound aircraft in a scuffle captured on video.
The footage of the incident, captured by a passenger, shows Echuca-Moama shearer Barry Clark and a Jetstar pilot overpowering the teenager, pushing him to the ground and putting him in a headlock, before emptying his tool belt and pockets and tying his hands behind his back.
Clark, a former boxer, managed to throw the shotgun down the stairs outside the aircraft with the help of a pilot and other passengers. There were about 150 passengers on board the aircraft at the time.
The teenager, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, appeared in court on Friday morning, dressed in the same white collared shirt and black suit pants he was wearing during his arrest.
During the brief court appearance, he sat quietly at the dock and spoke only to answer the magistrate’s questions.
The teenager is accused of stealing two 12-gauge shotguns and a rifle in regional Victoria, and had two or more firearms on him as he made his way to Avalon Airport, according to court documents released to the media.
He was also allegedly carrying a faux homemade explosive, which had been fashioned to look like a legitimate explosive device.
The court heard it was the teenager’s first time in custody. The 17-year-old did not apply for bail on Friday and will return to court for a mention hearing on March 21.
The incident has sparked widespread alarm that such a major security breach could unfold at a Victorian airport.
The Transport Workers’ Union said on Friday it would urgently meet Jetstar, and called for an immediate safety review.
The union’s national secretary, Michael Kaine, said the aviation community had been left shaken and distressed by incident.
“There are serious questions to be answered here about how this potentially catastrophic event occurred,” Kaine said.
“These workers deserve to be safe at work, just as travellers deserve to get safely to their destinations.”
Asked about the significance of the breach, police Superintendent Micheal Reid said on Thursday night it was “very concerning that a person can approach an aircraft and make his way, potentially close to being inside an aircraft, with a firearm”.
Officers travelled nine kilometres from the nearby town of Lara, 18 kilometres north-east of Geelong, to arrest the teenager on Thursday.
A spokeswoman for Victoria Police confirmed it did not have a permanent presence at Avalon Airport. She said officers patrolled the precinct regularly as part of the Lara response zone.
Only nine airports in Australia have counterterrorism first-response capabilities, including those in capital cities, the Gold Coast and Cairns.
The airport’s owners and operators have responsibility for passenger screening and perimeter security at Avalon.
Home Affairs staff visited the airport on Friday morning to conduct an initial assessment of the site.
A spokesperson said the department had a robust compliance program of government-mandated security requirements, but security services and contractual arrangements were ultimately a matter for the airport.
“As the matter is still being investigated it would not be appropriate to comment further,” the spokesperson said.
Flights at the airport resumed at 6am on Friday.
Passengers of Jetstar flight JQ610 were not allowed to retrieve their checked luggage for several hours because the plane had been declared a crime scene. Jetstar offered passengers rescheduled flights at no extra cost.
Jetstar chief executive Stephanie Tully said on Friday she was proud of how the pilot and cabin crew had acted during the security breach.
Jetstar chief executive Stephanie Tully.Credit: Dominic Lorrimer
“They couldn’t have done anything better,” Tully said.
She said it was a cabin manager who first observed something was amiss when the teenager tried to board without a ticket.
Asked whether the airline would perform its own investigation, Tully said the security breach was a matter for Avalon Airport and police, which were both investigating.
“We will obviously participate and work with them on that, but we’ve been flying out of Avalon for 20 years, and we know that has always been a safe and secure airport,” Tully said.
“Our priority right now is to care for those people who went through a very unusual day at work.”
Tully said the pilot was “doing amazing” and was back flying on Friday.
The Transport Workers’ Union said a recent survey of more than 2000 aviation workers had revealed a “safety crisis” at Australian airports.
More than half of the workers surveyed indicated they felt unsafe at work, while 65 per cent of cabin crew said they had been confronted by passengers presenting risks to the public.
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