QantasLink Flight 1737 was an afternoon
Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...
n domestic flight from
Melbourne Airport
Melbourne Airport , colloquially known as Tullamarine Airport, is the primary airport serving the city of Melbourne, and the second busiest airport in Australia. It opened in 1970 to replace the nearby Essendon Airport. Melbourne Airport is t ...
to
Launceston Airport
Launceston Airport is a regional airport on the outskirts of Launceston, Tasmania. The airport is located in the industrial area of Western Junction from Launceston city centre. It is Tasmania's second busiest after Hobart Airport; it can als ...
, which was subject to an attempted
hijacking
Hijacking may refer to:
Common usage
Computing and technology
* Bluejacking, the unsolicited transmission of data via Bluetooth
* Brandjacking, the unauthorized use of a company's brand
* Browser hijacking
* Clickjacking (including ''like ...
on 29 May 2003.
Hijack attempt
Flight 1737 left
Melbourne Airport
Melbourne Airport , colloquially known as Tullamarine Airport, is the primary airport serving the city of Melbourne, and the second busiest airport in Australia. It opened in 1970 to replace the nearby Essendon Airport. Melbourne Airport is t ...
at 2.50 pm on 29 May. Around ten minutes after take-off, as the crew prepared for the onboard meal service, David Mark Robinson, a passenger seated in Row 7, became agitated, stood up and began to make his way down the aisle. Producing two sharpened wooden stakes from his pocket, Robinson stabbed flight attendant Denise Hickson and flight purser Greg Khan in the head on his way to the cabin galley. Khan tackled Robinson to unbalance him, eventually succeeding despite repeated blows to the back of the head from Robinson's stakes. Several passengers (including a Canadian paramedic, Derek Finlay, a former Canadian soldier in
Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry
Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry (PPCLI, generally referred to as the Patricia's) is one of the three Regular Force infantry regiments of the Canadian Army of the Canadian Armed Forces. Formed in 1914, it is named for Princess Patrici ...
) helped restrain Robinson, holding him down and tying him up with materials found on board.
The plane immediately turned back to Melbourne, where Robinson was placed under arrest by
Australian Federal Police
The Australian Federal Police (AFP) is the national and principal federal law enforcement agency of the Australian Government with the unique role of investigating crime and protecting the national security of the Commonwealth of Australia. Th ...
. He was also found to be carrying aerosol cans and cigarette lighters, presumably to use as a flamethrower.
Khan and Hickson were later taken to
Royal Melbourne Hospital
The Royal Melbourne Hospital (RMH), located in Parkville, Victoria, an inner suburb of Melbourne, is one of Australia's leading public hospitals. It is a major teaching hospital for tertiary health care with a reputation in clinical research. Th ...
for treatment, and a passenger who received minor lacerations was treated at the airport by paramedics.
Safety and security concerns
Despite numerous security improvements following the
September 11, 2001 attacks
The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercial ...
, Flight 1737 lacked certain security arrangements. The door to the flightdeck had not been adapted to completely block access from the outside, and there was no
sky marshal
A sky marshal is a covert law enforcement or counter-terrorist agent on board a commercial aircraft to counter aircraft hijackings. Such an agent is also known as an air marshal, a flight marshal, or an in-flight security officer (IFSO). Sky marsh ...
on board.
Qantas undertook a full security review following the incident and promised to secure the flightdeck doors on all of their aircraft by 1 November. The airline dismissed the suggestion of armed sky marshals on each flight as too expensive, and a full body search of passengers to detect wooden objects as unfeasible.
Aftermath
In an interview with the
Australian Federal Police
The Australian Federal Police (AFP) is the national and principal federal law enforcement agency of the Australian Government with the unique role of investigating crime and protecting the national security of the Commonwealth of Australia. Th ...
, Robinson admitted attempting to hijack the plane, which he intended to crash into the
Walls of Jerusalem National Park
The Walls of Jerusalem National Park is a national park located in the Central Highlands region of Tasmania, Australia. The park is located approximately northwest of Hobart, east of the Cradle Mountain-Lake St Clair National Park, and west o ...
in
Tasmania
)
, nickname =
, image_map = Tasmania in Australia.svg
, map_caption = Location of Tasmania in AustraliaCoordinates:
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdi ...
– an action intended to release the
devil
A devil is the personification of evil as it is conceived in various cultures and religious traditions. It is seen as the objectification of a hostile and destructive force. Jeffrey Burton Russell states that the different conceptions of t ...
from his lair and bring about
Armageddon
According to the Book of Revelation in the New Testament of the Christian Bible, Armageddon (, from grc, Ἁρμαγεδών ''Harmagedōn'', Late Latin: , from Hebrew: ''Har Məgīddō'') is the prophesied location of a gathering of armies ...
. Robinson also admitted that he had intended to hijack aircraft on two previous occasions.
In July 2004, a
Supreme Court of Victoria
The Supreme Court of Victoria is the highest court in the Australian state of Victoria. Founded in 1852, it is a superior court of common law and equity, with unlimited and inherent jurisdiction within the state.
The Supreme Court comprises ...
jury found Robinson not guilty of the three charges against him (attempted hijack of an aircraft, attempted murder and grievous bodily harm) due to reasons of mental impairment. Three psychiatrists testified that at the time of the incident, Robinson was suffering from severe
paranoid schizophrenia
Schizophrenia is a mental disorder characterized by continuous or relapsing episodes of psychosis. Major symptoms include hallucinations (typically Auditory hallucination#Schizophrenia, hearing voices), delusions, and disorganized thinking. ...
. Justice Murray Kellam ordered Robinson to undergo psychiatric treatment at
Thomas Embling Psychiatric Hospital
Thomas Embling Hospital is a high-security forensic mental health hospital located in Fairfield, an inner Melbourne suburb in Victoria, Australia.
The facility is operated by the Victorian Institute of Forensic Mental Health, known as Forensicare ...
in
Fairfield.
Flight attendants Greg Khan and Denise Hickson returned to work after the incident. Khan and four of the passengers who helped restrain his attacker (Domenic Bordin, Keith Charlton, Gregory Martin and Garry Stewart) were awarded the
Commendation for Brave Conduct
The Commendation for Brave Conduct is a bravery decoration awarded to Australians. It is awarded for an act of bravery that is worthy of recognition. The Commendation for Brave Conduct was created in February 1975. The decorations recognise acts ...
from the
Governor of Victoria
The governor of Victoria is the representative of the monarch, King Charles III, in the Australian state of Victoria. The governor is one of seven viceregal representatives in the country, analogous to the governors of the other states, and the ...
,
John Landy
John Michael Landy OLY (12 April 1930 – 24 February 2022) was an Australian middle-distance runner and state governor. He was the second man to break the four-minute mile barrier in the mile run and held the world records for the 1500-metre ...
, in November 2004.
Heroes of Flight 1737
''The Sydney Morning Herald
''The Sydney Morning Herald'' (''SMH'') is a daily compact newspaper published in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, and owned by Nine. Founded in 1831 as the ''Sydney Herald'', the ''Herald'' is the oldest continuously published newspaper ...
'', 15 November 2004.
Qantas also made a training video regarding the incident; the crew involved were interviewed and this is shown during security training. Khan also speaks of how a passenger complained that the aircraft was returning to Melbourne, even though two crew members had suffered serious injuries and an attempt to hijack the aircraft had just occurred. Khan and other crew also report the amount of blood stains throughout the aircraft as a result of the injuries.
Since this incident, all Boeing 717 aircraft operated by Qantas (Qantaslink) have been fitted with cameras and the flight deck door is bullet proof.
Upon further investigations by the airline, it was found one of the cabin crew used the international code for hijacking over the interphone to the flight deck. The crew member states she got a reply, however the flight deck crew never heard the message, and found out much later that an attempted hijacking had occurred and crew were injured. The flight deck crew also stated they both heard yelling and screaming coming from the passenger cabin, and that they attempted to call the cabin crew but they received no answer and decided at this point to declare a pan-pan
The radiotelephony message PAN-PAN is the international standard urgency signal that someone aboard a boat, ship, aircraft, or other vehicle uses to declare that they have a situation that is urgent, but for the time being, does not pose an immed ...
call to air traffic control
Air traffic control (ATC) is a service provided by ground-based air traffic controllers who direct aircraft on the ground and through a given section of controlled airspace, and can provide advisory services to aircraft in non-controlled airs ...
(a pan-pan call is one call below the urgency of a Mayday
Mayday is an emergency procedure word used internationally as a distress signal in voice-procedure radio communications.
It is used to signal a life-threatening emergency primarily by aviators and mariners, but in some countries local organiza ...
).
See also
* Trans Australia Airlines Flight 408
The Trans-Australian Airlines hijacking was Australia's first aircraft hijacking. It occurred on 19 July 1960 over Brisbane in a Trans Australia Airlines (TAA) Lockheed Electra.
43 passengers and six crew were on board Flight 408, the last Sydn ...
* Ansett Airlines Flight 232
Ansett Australia Flight 232, on Wednesday, 15 November 1972, was a flight from Adelaide, South Australia aboard a Fokker Friendship bound for Alice Springs, Northern Territory. It was Australia's second aircraft hijacking (after the first in 1 ...
References
{{Aviation incidents and accidents in 2003
Aircraft hijackings
Aircraft hijackings in Australia
1737
Events
January–March
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Aviation accidents and incidents in 2003
Aviation accidents and incidents in Victoria (Australia)
2003 crimes in Australia
Terrorist incidents in Oceania in 2003
Terrorist incidents in Australia
Terrorist incidents in Australia in the 2000s
May 2003 events in Australia
2003 disasters in Australia