Man accused of attempted hijacking of plane

A 40-year-old unemployed computer analyst who attacked two flight attendants with sharp wooden stakes was today charged with the attempted hijacking of a domestic Australian plane.

David Mark Robinson, of Melbourne, today appeared before the city’s magistrates charged with one count of attempted hijacking and two counts of committing violence against a crew member. The attempted hijacking charge carries a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.

Authorities said they believe the assailant was trying to take control of the Qantas flight after it departed Melbourne yesterday but that they didn’t believe the attack was terrorism.

Transport minister John Anderson described the attacker as “less than stable”.

Witnesses said a group of flight attendants and passengers, led by 38-year-old flight attendant Greg Kahn, subdued the assailant before the plane returned to land safely in Melbourne, where Robinson was taken into custody.

“The guy was stabbing him, there was blood going everywhere, but the purser (Khan) wouldn’t let go, he kept fighting him back,” passenger Keith Charlton, 59, told one newspaper.

Mr Kahn and one other flight attendant were taken to hospital with stab wounds, and two passengers suffered light injuries.

Prime Minister John Howard praised the crew and passengers today for foiling the attempted hijacking, and said that the September 11 attacks had emboldened passengers to act against possible hijackers.

Robinson made no application for bail in Melbourne Magistrates Court today and was not required to enter a plea. He was ordered to reappear August 8.

Police said the suspect emerged from the seventh row, ten minutes after Qantas flight QF1737 took off from Melbourne en route to Tasmania, and that he wielded two wooden stakes 6in long as he tried to storm the locked cockpit.

Authorities expressed concern about how the suspect managed to get his weapons aboard the plane despite the country’s heightened wariness of terrorism in the aftermath of the Iraq war.