He was suffering some sort of delusion and people who were sitting close to him in the next row said he was threatening to use the power of his mind to being the flight down.
Gawd I wish I'd thought of that. Mind projection!
You think you know the human brain, then BANG. suddenly someone displays absolute pure genious, a cerebral giant walking amongst mere mortals. It is true that no true genious is recognised in their own lifetime.
Of course if I can be so bold as to speculate. I think where his plan went awry was when he used his mind to BEING the flight down instead of BRING the flight down. But then I'm sure that's just a typo as that's the sort of mistake that a rookie would make, not a master of the cranial arts.
Then again, what kind of restraints do QANTAS use? Metal or plastic? The military use plastic because of it's well documented ability to block mind projection.
Don't believe me? Try googling "the men who stare at goats". The movie is a p!sstake but the fact is that the U$ gov spent millions on studying mind projection.