A Sri Lankan student who tried to enter an airline cockpit with what he said was a bomb before terrified passengers overpowered him, had been released from psychiatric care just before boarding the plane, Australian police said on Thursday.
Passengers on Malaysian Airlines flight MH128 from Melbourne to Kuala Lumpur said they feared for their lives when the 25-year-old rushed towards the cockpit shouting that he wanted to “blow the plane up”.
“He had been released from psychiatric care (on Wednesday), and from there we believe he has purchased a ticket on this plane,” Victoria state police chief Graham Ashton said.
Several passengers wrestled the man to the floor, Ashton said. The crew gave them seatbelts to hog-tie him before the plane made an emergency landing at Melbourne airport.
