SCOOT: Boeing 787 aircraft heading to Perth returns to Singapore after Australian makes bomb threat

The Straits Times reports that a 30-year-old Australian was arrested yesterday (Thursday, 12 October) after making what was interpreted as a bomb threat on a Scoot flight, TR16 heading to Perth, Western Australia.

Singapore police were informed of the alleged bomb threat at 4:55 pm Singapore time and arrested the passenger with a charge of criminal intimidation.

Background

The Scoot aircraft had left Changi Airport at 4:11 pm. A decision was made to turn the plane back to Singapore about one hour into the flight ‘due to a bomb threat’. The Dreamliner Boeing 787 aircraft landed safely back at Changi at 6:27 Singapore time. It was escorted by Republic of Singapore Air Force (RSAF) military aircraft.

The flight had 363 passengers, 9 crew and 2 pilots on board. It left Terminal 1, with an expected arrival time into Perth of 8:35 pm

According to the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore, one runway was briefly closed for an hour as a precaution. This led to 8 arriving flights and 6 departures experiencing delays.

Investigations continue.

Onboard

Twitter (now known as X) user ‘SquawkAlert’ claims that a 7700 squark, issued when an emergency occurs, was made. Reports indicate there was little panic on board once the fighter jets arrived to escort the plane. It was more an opportunity to take photos on mobile phones. The pilot only referred to the incident as a ‘bomb threat’ once the plane had landed.

2PAXfly Takeout

Perceived threats have to be taken seriously, even though they might be the idle words of a thoughtless, unthinking, drunken Australian drongo. We don’t know yet. But if it was, and let’s hope it was, I don’t envy that bloke dealing with the unbending Singaporean legal system