‘Hijacker’ arrested after ‘trying to steal plane’ and take it to the Middle East

Investigations are ongoing after Australian police arrested a man who had allegedly attempted to ‘hijack’ a passenger jet and divert it to the Middle East earlier this year

A counter-terrorism operation managed to thwart an attempted ‘hijack’ of an Australian passenger jet earlier this year with possible motives now being explored. The suspect, who can not be named due to a strict suppression order, was arrested by the Australian Federal Police and is now facing court.

It is alleged that he attempted to seize control of the aircraft and divert its course to a hostile nation in the Middle East. Investigators are now examining whether there was an extremist ideology or anti-Semitic motivation behind the incident.

Speaking about the plot, Australian Health Minister Mark Butler said: Obviously any report of a potential hijacking sends shivers down the spine of every Australian. Particularly Australians who fly.

“I want to be cautious about this. This alleged hijacker is in custody. There’s no threat to the Australian community.

“But there’s a suppression order on this for good reason. Investigations are still underway by our intelligence and security agencies. So we don’t want to speculate about other aspects of this issue.

“We want to let our agencies do their work and that will all come out in due course and be prosecuted in the normal way.”

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has been briefed on parts of the investigation, The Australian reports. According to former pilot David Oliver, the plot would have been very difficult to pull off.

“Firstly there’s a security protocols on the ground which are fairly strict, both for airport workers an non-airport workers who have to access certain facilities,” reports Mirror.

“And on the aircraft, there is strict protocols for flight access which both the cabin crew and flight crew are privy too that passengers would not know – it would be difficult to get into the flight deck.”

The plan is said to have involved multiple refuelling stops on the way to the Middle East, something that would have likely put an end to the ordeal.

Mr Oliver added: “A refuelling stop adds a lot of complications to any potential threat because there’s no country that I have flown into that would let a hijacked plane refuel and keep going.

“I think the hijacker hadn’t thought his plan through.”