Plane turned back due to bomb threat

A Malaysia Airlines plane was forced to return to an airport in Australia after a passenger claimed he was carrying a bomb.

A Malaysia Airlines plane. Photo: Herald Sun

Flight MH128 from Melbourne to Kuala Lumpur was forced to return to the airport on the evening of May 31, after a man threatened those on board.

Malaysian Deputy Transport Minister Abdul Aziz Kaprawi said the passenger, a Sri Lankan national, appeared to be drunk when he tried to enter the cockpit. He was restrained by flight crew and later arrested by airport security in Melbourne.

"It was not a hijacking. A disruptive passenger tried to get into the cockpit," he said.

"This passenger claimed he was carrying a bomb, but it was not a bomb but a power bank," Mr Aziz said.Everyone on board is safe."

The incident comes months after Canberra called off the search for missing flight MH370, carrying 239 people, after a large-scale search off Australia's west coast proved fruitless.

MH370 disappeared in March 2014. Another Malaysia Airlines plane, MH17, crashed in July of the same year while flying over Ukraine.

According to VNE