AN Australian state’s top cop denied police took “took long” to remove an unruly passenger who made a fake bomb threat that forced a Kuala Lumpur-bound Malaysia Airlines flight to turn back to Sydney yesterday, a local online news portal reports.

“I don’t think so,” New South Wales police commissioner Karen Webb was quoted as saying.

“We were notified at about 4.15pm yesterday and it was resolved at about 6.15pm. Given it’s a volatile situation, and unpredictable, we didn’t know the severity of the incident. You have to deal with what you learn about the passenger – we didn’t know if there was a bomb. We had to work through all those considerations.”

She added that the “important thing is to try and defuse and not escalate the situation”.

“I praise the crew for what they did in keeping the passengers calm… to de-escalate the situation to the point that we got this matter resolved in three hours,” she said.

“I think three hours is pretty good. I know it’s pretty terrifying. The protocol in Australia is to negotiate. We don’t storm planes – this is not TV, it’s not the movies – and we want to protect the lives of all passengers.”

The man has since been charged with two offences – making a false statement and not complying with directions.

Webb reportedly admitted that they could have considered doing “something differently”, but added that the officers were not in a position to presume anything.

“You don’t know whether this person was acting alone or he actually had other support on the plane or outside the plane,” she said.

“We’re never complacent on these issues and we should never presume anything. We’re just lucky in Australia this happens so rarely but we should never be complacent to think it could never happen here.” – August 15, 2023.