The Australian Govt settled a lot of ex Tamil Tiger type refugees about 4 years ago so any threat from that ethnic group has got to be assessed in the light of their history.
The police probably knew early on that he was Sinhalese, not Tamil from his name in passenger records.
His Facebook page has the familiar 'drugs and thugs' theme of so many people of his age group.
As I remarked earlier, this incident has similarities to the one a few days ago discussed here:
http://www.pprune.org/rumours-news/5...es-flight.html
In the HNL incident the guy tried to move forward, possibly toward the cockpit, and made threats. He was confronted and blocked and ran to the back where he was restrained by other passengers. A notebook computer was deemed to be a potential explosive device and treated as such.
When AA 31 landed in HNL, the police and FBI boarded immediately and removed the 'disruptive passenger' and presumably the notebook computer.
I'm reasonably sure that if the AA captain had thought an evacuation was warranted and gave the order, he would have the support of his union and probably his airline as well.
If you had an overpowered suspect onboard but a suspicious device still sitting on the cabin floor, would you wait for the police tactical response?
In the MEL incident, leaving the pax onboard with a potential explosive device and a restrained possible terrorist for over an hour while someone makes a decision seems unreasonable to me as a pilot. I would have called for the stairs to deplane. If they didn't come in a timely manner, pop the slides, everybody except the restrained passenger out.
Again, I'm thinking as a pilot, not as a SWAT team member or counter-terrorism expert.
Originally Posted by
jugofpropwash
Personally, I think I'd open the aircraft door and pitch the suspicious device just as hard and far as I could. Then I would strongly consider pitching the idiot out of the plane - head first.
The FedEx DC-10 hijacker Auburn Calloway was restrained and left on the plane for be removed by first responders. He later claimed that he was improperly evacuated and should have had priority deplaning over the three pilots he so savagely attacked.