Stabbing would-be hijacker subdued

Passengers and crew aboard a Qantas airliner today subdued a 40-year-old Australian man who stabbed two flight attendants on his way to the cockpit.

Qantas flight nearly hijacked (NZCity)

A report in the Melbourne Herald Sun says the man, onboard a flight from Melbourne to Launceston, Australia, was armed with two wooden stakes, an aerosol can and a yellow cigarette lighter.

The would-be hijacker reportedly raced down the aisle of the plane “with his hands raised in the air” armed with the stakes, according to one witness.

“There were people screaming and crying, and there was a real commotion going on,” Derek Finlay, a Canadian paramedic who helped tackle the attacker, told the Australian paper. “There were large amounts of blood coming out of [chief flight attendant] Greg’s head. As soon as we realized what was going on, six or seven of us jumped on [the hijacker].”

Flight attendant Greg Khan won praise from passengers.

“The fellow Greg, really was a hero. … If it wasn’t for him we could’ve been in a lot of trouble,” passenger Keith Charlton told the Herald Sun. “As he was being attacked, he put his head down into the man’s chest and he pushed him back down the plane. He had two severe injuries to his head – one was on the chin, one was on the top of his head.”

According to the report, a female flight attendant was slashed across the face as the attacker made his way toward the cockpit.

From the moment of the attack till the man was subdued, the drama lasted just 20 seconds.

The flight attendants were in serious but stable condition in a Melbourne hospital. Two passengers were treated for minor injuries, reports the paper.

After the man was subdued, passengers restrained him with plastic ties while the plane returned to Melbourne.

“We believe he was trying to take over the plane,” the paper quotes police officer Stephen Cato as saying.

“Very shortly after take-off … the man started to become very threatening,” Transport Minister John Anderson told the media. “He apparently headed for the cabin and seemed to be intent upon trying to force a nasty outcome. If you call it an attempt to crash an aircraft, you might call that a hijacking.”

Anderson said Australian security measures would not have flagged the man as a danger, since carrying pieces of wood onto an airplane is not a violation of the rules.

Qantas Chief Executive Officer Geoff Dixon said in a statement there was nothing to suggest the incident was related to terrorist activity.

“We do not believe at this stage this is terrorist-related in any way,” he told reporters.

The suspect was being questioned by authorities in Melbourne. According to one source, he talked of ” God’s will or Armageddon” during the interrogation.