MH122 diverted back to SYD due to security incident

[justinbrett]

Breaking news

https://www.news.com.au/travel/travel-updates/incidents/afp-officers-attend-sydney-airport-as-emergency-incident-unfolds/news-story/902c5e6afc59758c2c5020dc7f06575c

MH122 (MAS122) Malaysia Airlines Flight Tracking and History 14/08/2023 (SYD / YSSY-SYD / YSSY) - FlightAware

Track Malaysia Airlines (MH) #122 flight from Sydney to Sydney

flightaware.com

 

[OATEK]

Just saw a quick mention on TV, but no clear idea of what sort of emergency as yet beyond the twitter posts in the article. Some video on Sky news that the A330 is currently parked out on one of the runways.

 

[justinbrett]

Just saw a quick mention on TV, but no clear idea of what sort of emergency as yet.

Disruptive pax - aparently the acft is parked on runway 16R - it's NOTAM'd closed.

C2177/23
RWY 16R/34L CLOSED DUE DISABLED ACFT
FROM 08 140703 TO 08 141100 EST

https://twitter.com/x/status/1690978936392667136

 

[Pushka]

Video of incident is in the article.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Good question indeed. How does it take that long for airport security to get to the plane?

Plane was still there a few minutes ago as we took off.

Not sure why the runway needed to be closed. Guess that will come out in the investigation. If the plane had pulled a few feet further it would have been well on the taxiway, which normally sees other planes taking off and landing alongside?

 

[RooFlyer]

Nothing to see here:

Good question indeed. How does it take that long for airport security to get to the plane?

I suspect there are so many chains of command to be linked and cultural awareness to be considered that things can't happen immediately.

 

[justinbrett]

Not sure why the runway needed to be closed. Guess that will come out in the investigation. If the plane had pulled a few feet further it would have been well on the taxiway, which normally sees other planes taking off and landing alongside?

When lives are at risk airport efficiency goes out the window. Nobody would ever question that decision. In all likelyhood it's just a crazy pax, but nobody is going to gamble on that fact.

From flightradar it looks like it parked clear of the runway on A6.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

But didn’t the AFP get into trouble with another security incident at MEL a few years ago? Like they took hours for something that should have been much quicker? Have lessons been learned?

Post automatically merged: Aug 14, 2023

When lives are at risk airport efficiency goes out the window. Nobody would ever question that decision. In all likelyhood it's just a crazy pax, but nobody is going to gamble on that fact.

If there were lives at risk, would there not have been a quicker response? Or an emergency evacuation? Unless something got past security

 

[Quickstatus]

would there not have been a quicker response? Or an emergency evacuation?

SYD knew of the return when the aircraft turn around near Tilpa.

Emergency Evacuation likely will cause injuries.

 

[justinbrett]

If there were lives at risk, would there not have been a quicker response? Or an emergency evacuation? Unless something got past security

They would have had AFP on the task within minutes.

That doesn't mean they storm the plane in minutes. I am sure they were talking to the captain and working out the best way to do with it.

The Lindt Cafe situation went on for many, many hours.

 

[Pushka]

But didn’t the AFP get into trouble with another security incident at MEL a few years ago? Like they took hours for something that should have been much quicker? Have lessons been learned?

Post automatically merged: Aug 14, 2023

If there were lives at risk, would there not have been a quicker response? Or an emergency evacuation? Unless something got past security

if the guy was threatening as it seems he was, with his backpack, then they would need to do a risk assessment. He may have threatened to do something drastic if people were moved out. We don't know yet.

 

[Notyourbag]

How scary. Thoughts are with all the passengers. Poor MH can't take a trick

 

[MEL_Traveller]

They would have had AFP on the task within minutes.

That doesn't mean they storm the plane in minutes. I am sure they were talking to the captain and working out the best way to do with it.

The Lindt Cafe situation went on for many, many hours.

But lindt cafe had an actual weapon didn’t it? This passenger would have been security cleared. So that should be able to be checked fairly quickly.

But I thought the outcome of the report into a similar incident in MEL was that they acted too slow? Unless I’m getting that mixed up?

 

[justinbrett]

But lindt cafe had an actual weapon didn’t it? This passenger would have been security cleared. So that should be able to be checked fairly quickly.

Would you take that gamble? Airport security is not a fail-safe.

But I thought the outcome of the report into a similar incident in MEL was that they acted too slow? Unless I’m getting that mixed up?

It's premature to say the response was slow. That's just based on what the passengers & media have seen. A lot would have been happening out of view, getting things in place / gathering information etc.

 

[OATEK]

I expect that the aircraft has been kept as far away from the terminal as possible to reduce the risk of collateral damage if it more than just a shouting match. TV showing pax using a set of steps to disembark, probably in the rain.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Would you take that gamble? Airport security is not a fail-safe.



It's premature to say the response was slow. That's just based on what the passengers & media have seen. A lot would have been happening out of view, getting things in place / gathering information etc.

Airport security isn’t fail safe, but i’d expect them to run the tapes of that passenger and anything they had with them. If those results were unclear, there should have been secondary screening.

I was wrong regarding the incident at MEL. People were complaining the response took too long, but there wasn’t any official finding of that nature.

 

[Saab34]

I expect that the aircraft has been kept as far away from the terminal as possible to reduce the risk of collateral damage if it more than just a shouting match. TV showing pax using a set of steps to disembark, probably in the rain.

In Melbourne I remember they parked it way down the end near the Runway 34 numbers

I was wrong regarding the incident at MEL. People were complaining the response took too long, but there wasn’t any official finding of that nature.

Likely only those higher up in such organisations will know if they executed the event well or not, unlikely to admit to the media ‘we could have done better’.

The delay is likely due to intelligence officials putting the puzzle together, running the manifest through the data, seeing if any close links to the offender exist onboard, any other risks onboard, a whole heap of dot connecting as such.

However if someone had a bomb onboard, certainly would be very uncomfortable waiting for hours until someone comes to the aircraft. Open the forward slides and get me off. I recall one American pilot threatened authorities with that once in a similar situation.

 

[justinbrett]

Airport security isn’t fail safe, but i’d expect them to run the tapes of that passenger and anything they had with them. If those results were unclear, there should have been secondary screening.

There's no way that could be done within the time required and have a result you could rely on. It also doesn't rule out any help he had after security with either another pax or an airport worker.

 

[Saab34]

The most useful information to the investigators behind the scenes are likely all the social media videos being published from the scene.

 

[jakeseven7]

Oh dear…..