V-Flyer

Sky News reporting that a Virgin Australia plane has been forced to land at Bali after a drunken passenger tried to enter the flight deck, sparking a hijack alert.

Hope everyone's ok.

http://news.sky.com/story/1249086/virgi ... s-hijacked

UPDATE - Sky saying it was a Boeing 737-800 en route from Brisbane to Bali, the captain raised the alarm after a passenger "tried to enter the cockpit". Not clear at this stage whether they were successful. One passenger arrested, said to be drunk.

Just seen this I echo your thoughts

I heard this break on LBC this morning.
Echo @gumshoe - Hope everyone is ok and wait to hear further news of what actually happened.
Certainly food for thought.

Here in OZ the news is as you have it. Intoxicated idiot, 28 year old male, now in custody. Nobody hurt.

For anyone who questions why VS sometimes restrict alcohol on the LAS route, there's your answer.

I see VS have had to post on Facebook that this wasn't a VS flight, and all their aircraft are safe and accounted for. The drawback of sharing a brand I guess.

HWVlover wrote:Here in OZ the news is as you have it. Intoxicated idiot, 28 year old male, now in custody. Nobody hurt.

Well in one way that is sort of good news. but yes as pointed out by gumshoe this is the case for restricting alcohol onboard indeed.

I don't disagree about restricting alcohol on board if required, however this incident occurred an hour into the flight so the issue might be more about don't let the drunk on the plane.

Presumably cabin crew and gate agents are trained to spot very obviously drunk people and stop them boarding.

Trouble is drink affects people in very different ways and some are very good at hiding it. If someone can walk in a straight line to the gate and keep their mouth shut for a few minutes they're very unlikely to be stopped but of course once they're on board and the drinks cart comes round, it might only take one more miniature to make them abusive, violent or worse.

The other thing is if your a premium customer you a offered copious quantities of alcohol both pre-flight in the lounge and yet again on board. I have witnessed inappropriate alcohol behaviour on many different airlines and different routes (I live 30miles north of Benidorm so the flights to Alicante can be a nightmare) It is my experience that where alcohol is available for purchase that the drunkenness is worse than on airlines that give free alcohol but control it.

I would point out that intoxication has very similar symptoms to serious medical conditions and vis versa.

Matt Lockley, a 28 year old plumber, from Queensland has been released from jail in Bali and is now on his way back to Australia. Authorities have accepted his story that he mistook the cockpit door for a toilet door. Blood tests showed that he had not been drinking.

HWVlover wrote:Matt Lockley, a 28 year old plumber, from Queensland has been released from jail in Bali and is now on his way back to Australia. Authorities have accepted his story that he mistook the cockpit door for a toilet door. Blood tests showed that he had not been drinking.

There were some fairly reactionary images of him being bundled across the apron in DPS, handcuffed and surrounded by armed security/military (PM) although, they did appear to be very professional in their attitude.

It was reported that he had denied consuming alcohol, but had drunk some soft drinks and taken an analgesic, and was concerned about not receiving contact from a close family member for a period of two weeks.

The analgesic in question has some interesting potential neuropsychiatric side effects, and I would put my money on a combination of anxiety, sleep disturbance, relative hypoxia and a possible drug effect as the cause of his erratic behaviour.

Given the latest update, Darren's observation was spot on. Although, it's also possible that the man was calm and the crew and other pax understandably overreacted