Man charged over mid-air rant involved in court drama
The man at the centre of an incident that forced an international flight to return to Sydney airport has refused to come out of his cell.
The man at the centre of the mid-air drama which forced an international flight to be turned around will make a bid to be released on bail on Wednesday after his lawyer flagged he was suffering from mental health issues.
Dramatic video shared online on Monday allegedly showed Canberra man Muhammad Arif accosting and ranting at airline crew and making threats on-board the Malaysia-bound plane.
Nearly 200 passengers were forced to wait for about three hours before he was dramatically arrested on-board flight MH122 on Monday night.
Mr Arif, 45, was charged on Tuesday morning with not complying with a cabin crew’s safety instruction and making a false statement about threat to damage an aircraft.
If convicted, Mr Arif faces a potential maximum penalty of 10 years in prison.
However there was more drama as he was due to appear in Sydney’s Downing Centre Local Court on Tuesday as he repeatedly refused to leave his cell at Surry Hills police station.
On Tuesday morning, after waiting for several minutes for him to appear on a videolink, Magistrate Greg Grogin told the court that Mr Arif had refused to come out of his cell to make his first court appearance.
“Apparently he’s refusing to come out of his cell and they have to extract him if he’s to come to court,” Mr Grogin told the court.
After a short adjournment, his solicitor Mostafa Daoudie told the court that Mr Arif was suffering from a serious mental health issues.
He asked Mr Grogin to order a mental health assessment.
“I am instructed there are serious mental health issues,” Mr Daoudie said.
Mr Daoudie told the court that Mr Arif had again refused to leave his cell to speak to him and he “didn’t seem to understand the situation he’s in”.
After yet another adjournment, Mr Arif’s matter was adjourned until Wednesday when he is expected to make an application to be released on bail.
The flight departed about 1pm on Monday afternoon and was forced to turn around after an hour and returned to Sydney International Airport at 3.45pm.
During the flight, a male passenger allegedly became disruptive and claimed to have explosives on board.
According to witnesses, Arif allegedly claimed he had a “bomb” in his bag.
Videos posted to social media showed the man arguing with flight attendants and ranting about “Allah”.
“Are you a slave of Allah? Are you? Say it. Say it. Are you a slave of Allah?” he said in one video.
One man who was on board the flight, Muhammad Zubair said: “Flying #MH122, got diverted back to Sydney due this random idiot who started threatening staff and passengers.”
The plane landed back in Sydney and was isolated at the end of a runway while the other passengers were moved to another part of the plane.
Mr Arif’s bag was examined by the flight crew and was determined to not have anything dangerous inside.
The plane sat on the tarmac for several hours before police stormed the plane and placed Mr Arif in handcuffs.
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