A 30-year-old male Australian passenger onboard a Singapore-Perth flight has been arrested over a bomb threat, and the plane was escorted back to Changi Airport here by two Air Force fighter jets.
Several flights to Singapore including Singapore Airlines flight SQ331 from Paris, United Airlines flight UA29 from San Francisco, and IndiGo flight 6E1013 from New Delhi were put in holding patterns over the neighbouring Riau Islands of Indonesia, according to a report by Channel News Asia.
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Eight arrival and six departure flights were delayed, including one carrying National Development Minister Desmond Lee, who was flying back from Kuala Lumpur, reported The Straits Times.
The accused has been charged with criminal intimidation, police said, adding that an investigation into the matter is going on. In a statement, police said they were informed of the bomb threat on flight TR16 at about 4.55 pm after the flight took off at 4.11 pm on Thursday.
“The flight had departed Singapore and made a U-turn back to Singapore. The plane landed safely at Changi Airport at about 6.26pm,” the police said, adding that the plane was escorted back by Republic of Singapore Air Force (RSAF) fighter jets.
The police completed security checks and arrested the man. “The police take security threats seriously and will not hesitate to take action against those who intentionally cause public alarm,” police said.
Flight operator Scoot said a “precautionary decision” was made to turn the plane back to Singapore due to the bomb threat.
“Scoot is assisting the authorities with their investigations. As this is a security matter, we regret that we cannot provide further details,” the CNA quoted the budget-class airline owned by Singapore Airlines.
“Scoot sincerely apologises for the disruption and inconvenience caused. The safety of our customers and crew is our top priority, and we will continue to provide assistance to our customers, it said. RSAF said in a Facebook post that it activated two of its F-15SG fighter jets in response to the “suspected bomb threat”.
According to data from flight tracker Flightradar24, flight TR16 made a U-turn over Indonesia’s Bangka Island and headed back towards Singapore about 30 minutes into the flight. It then entered a holding pattern over the South China Sea, east of Malaysia, flying in loops for about 50 minutes.
The plane subsequently flew over Batam before landing at Changi Airport on Thursday evening. As of 6.50 pm, the plane appeared to be stationary near the southern end of Runway 3 and had not returned to a terminal.
Flights began landing shortly after TR16 touched down. TR16 took off again at 11.41 pm and was expected to arrive in Perth at 4.22 am on Friday, Flightradar24 data showed late on Thursday. Passengers were informed about it at 5.05 pm that the aircraft was experiencing “minor issues”, the broadsheet reported, citing a 30-year-old system analyst.
