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Friday, March 29, 2024

Virgin Airline Plane Forced To Land Over Hijack Scare Caused By Drunk Passenger (PICTURED)

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This is the first picture of the ‘drunken’ Australian passenger who sparked a major hijack scare on a Virgin passenger jet.

Matt Christopher Lockley, 28, from Queensland, was arrested at Bali airport after the pilot reported someone was trying to get into the cockpit.

His call to air traffic controllers at Denpasar Airport, an hour before the Virgin Australia flight VA41 from Brisbane was due to land, sparked fears of an attempted hijacking.

Arrested: Matt Christopher Lockley has been detained at Bali airport following the scare (Photo Credit: Daily Mirror)
Arrested: Matt Christopher Lockley has been detained at Bali airport following the scare (Photo Credit: Daily Mirror)

Swarms of armed Indonesian security guards met the plane as it landed on the runway.

However, all 137 passengers and six crew members were escorted off the plane unharmed.

A Virgina Australia official said Lockley had been acting “aggressively” and banging on the cockpit door.

“There was a drunk passenger, intoxicated and aggressively behaved. He was trying to enter the cockpit, banging the door but he did not enter the cockpit,” Heru Sudjatmiko, airport manager for Virgin Australia in Bali, told Indonesia’s Metro TV.

Crew members seized the passenger and handcuffed him, he said.

“The suspect is being interrogated by police in Bali,” said Suhardi Alius, a police official in Jakarta.

Airport operations in Bali have since returned to normal, an airport official added.

A spokesperson for Virgin said earlier reports of a ‘hijacking’ were the result of a ‘miscommunication’.

A post on the Virgin Australia Facebook page said: “The aircraft in question has landed safely and at no point was the safety of our passengers ever in question.”

Virgin Australia Airlines, formerly Virgin Blue Airlines, is Australia’s second-largest airline as well as the largest by fleet size to use the Virgin brand.

It was founded by Richard Branson and former Virgin Blue CEO Brett Godfrey.

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