Office Update
12th Jan 2017, 21:45
BY GORETHY KENNETH
A PLANE would have crashed and about 180 passengers perished on Air Niugini’s PX 392 bound for Singapore if a suspicious passenger onboard had it his way this week.
But a quick response from two Papua New Guineans on board including the flight crew and an expatriate who acted swiftly to assist contained the situation.
The captain of the flight was also commended for being calm and not reporting to the Singapore authorities or consequences would have been faced.
This saw passengers panic but yesterday Air Niugini defended that there was nothing sinister about this issue and that the passenger concerned had some issues.
The Post-Courier spoke to the passenger concerned who is now in India on three months holiday who said he was off the mark, lost his mind in his sleep and was not feeling well after a long flight and a sleepless previous night from Solomon islands.
The paper also spoke to two of the officers of the Singapore Immigration and checkpoint authority who said that they were aware of the incident but could not provide further details on the outcome.
On Monday January 9, 2017, Air Niugini’s flight PX 392 was departing Jackson’s airport just after 2:30pm for Singapore. On board was a passenger Roy Devanand who was transiting through from Solomon Islands where he had been working for the last eight months. He was on his way to India for vacation.
About an hour descending into Changi Airport the ordeal started, but PNG businessman Mathew Minape recapped yesterday that he was already suspicious of Mr Devanand’s (sitting in row 13 while Minape was in row 17) actions when the plane was still at the Jackson’s tarmac.
“Before we departed Jackson’s security guards came and talked to him in the plane and we delayed the flight about five-10 minutes. He was transiting from Solomon Islands. I asked him where he was from and he said he was from south India. He looked like he was in his late 30s,” Mr Minape said yesterday after returning from Singapore on PX 393 at 5am.
“Four hours after dinner everyone was tired, watching movies, some sleeping, I was alert after I saw this same guy frequent the toilet,” he said.
“This last leg of the trip, I watched a lot of news on the plane about happenings somewhere in the bay between PNG, Indonesia and Singapore, we were approaching that section and here I am, sitting in my row and watching this guy walk by with an inflated life jacket around him, he walked straight to his seat, opened the luggage cabin, he had two bags and then reached for the exit knob,” he said.
“I jumped over him and grabbed him on his shoulder and I said you can’t do this and I lifted my voice saying this is a Papua New Guinean aircraft, this is my aircraft and you can’t do this, you sit down! While I was arguing with him one other PNG man working in Vietnam came to assist me, there was also another expatriate who was screaming from the back. One of the air stewards removed the inflated jacket and then all the other crew members, alerted, reported to the Captain.
“I saw him, he was opening the cabin where you put your luggage and he was trying to open the exit door or do something to harm all of us and get the international attention.
“We asked for a handcuff from the crew members to restrain him but they didn’t have any so we used the seat belt – belted him to the middle seat and we guarded and contained him right through to the landing.
The other Papua New Guinean man grabbed him on his left side, I got him on his right side and we forced ourselves to sit in the middle row (three-seats).
“I knew the Captain could not come and attend to this because he has to control and land the plane.
“But I really acknowledge and commend the captain because he was calm, he tried to calm the guy down and kept telling him to relax, feel comfortable, just get what you want, food or whatever, we will lend a hand. The Captain kept saying ‘be calm, relax if I report this matter to the Singapore authorities, we will be in a lot of trouble’.
“When I heard the pilot say this, I thought to myself Singapore will not allow us to land, their laws are very strict and this guy will be punished or we might never be allowed to land and told to take the next six hours back to Port Moresby and considering gas for plane, Indonesia and Australia would have been advised of the dilemma and would not allow us to land our plane so I said I need to hold this guy back and contain him so that we land the plane,” he said.
A PLANE would have crashed and about 180 passengers perished on Air Niugini’s PX 392 bound for Singapore if a suspicious passenger onboard had it his way this week.
But a quick response from two Papua New Guineans on board including the flight crew and an expatriate who acted swiftly to assist contained the situation.
The captain of the flight was also commended for being calm and not reporting to the Singapore authorities or consequences would have been faced.
This saw passengers panic but yesterday Air Niugini defended that there was nothing sinister about this issue and that the passenger concerned had some issues.
The Post-Courier spoke to the passenger concerned who is now in India on three months holiday who said he was off the mark, lost his mind in his sleep and was not feeling well after a long flight and a sleepless previous night from Solomon islands.
The paper also spoke to two of the officers of the Singapore Immigration and checkpoint authority who said that they were aware of the incident but could not provide further details on the outcome.
On Monday January 9, 2017, Air Niugini’s flight PX 392 was departing Jackson’s airport just after 2:30pm for Singapore. On board was a passenger Roy Devanand who was transiting through from Solomon Islands where he had been working for the last eight months. He was on his way to India for vacation.
About an hour descending into Changi Airport the ordeal started, but PNG businessman Mathew Minape recapped yesterday that he was already suspicious of Mr Devanand’s (sitting in row 13 while Minape was in row 17) actions when the plane was still at the Jackson’s tarmac.
“Before we departed Jackson’s security guards came and talked to him in the plane and we delayed the flight about five-10 minutes. He was transiting from Solomon Islands. I asked him where he was from and he said he was from south India. He looked like he was in his late 30s,” Mr Minape said yesterday after returning from Singapore on PX 393 at 5am.
“Four hours after dinner everyone was tired, watching movies, some sleeping, I was alert after I saw this same guy frequent the toilet,” he said.
“This last leg of the trip, I watched a lot of news on the plane about happenings somewhere in the bay between PNG, Indonesia and Singapore, we were approaching that section and here I am, sitting in my row and watching this guy walk by with an inflated life jacket around him, he walked straight to his seat, opened the luggage cabin, he had two bags and then reached for the exit knob,” he said.
“I jumped over him and grabbed him on his shoulder and I said you can’t do this and I lifted my voice saying this is a Papua New Guinean aircraft, this is my aircraft and you can’t do this, you sit down! While I was arguing with him one other PNG man working in Vietnam came to assist me, there was also another expatriate who was screaming from the back. One of the air stewards removed the inflated jacket and then all the other crew members, alerted, reported to the Captain.
“I saw him, he was opening the cabin where you put your luggage and he was trying to open the exit door or do something to harm all of us and get the international attention.
“We asked for a handcuff from the crew members to restrain him but they didn’t have any so we used the seat belt – belted him to the middle seat and we guarded and contained him right through to the landing.
The other Papua New Guinean man grabbed him on his left side, I got him on his right side and we forced ourselves to sit in the middle row (three-seats).
“I knew the Captain could not come and attend to this because he has to control and land the plane.
“But I really acknowledge and commend the captain because he was calm, he tried to calm the guy down and kept telling him to relax, feel comfortable, just get what you want, food or whatever, we will lend a hand. The Captain kept saying ‘be calm, relax if I report this matter to the Singapore authorities, we will be in a lot of trouble’.
“When I heard the pilot say this, I thought to myself Singapore will not allow us to land, their laws are very strict and this guy will be punished or we might never be allowed to land and told to take the next six hours back to Port Moresby and considering gas for plane, Indonesia and Australia would have been advised of the dilemma and would not allow us to land our plane so I said I need to hold this guy back and contain him so that we land the plane,” he said.