Sydney, June 23, 2026
A man has been charged over an alleged bomb hoax on board a flight from Sydney to Kuala Lumpur, Australian authorities said on Tuesday.
The Australian Federal Police (AFP) reported that a 44-year-old man from Montenegro was arrested at Sydney Airport on Sunday after officers received information about an alleged bomb threat made on a Turkish Airlines flight.
Authorities allege the man claimed to have a bomb after a crew member questioned him about electrical equipment while the plane was preparing for take-off.
The captain was notified of the incident, and the aircraft returned to the gate, where police boarded the plane and removed the man, reports Xinhua news agency.
He was subsequently charged with one count of threatening aviation security, which carries a maximum penalty of a 10,500-Australian-dollar (about 7,346 US dollars) fine.
The captain told police that the device appeared to be a wireless phone charger.
AFP Detective Superintendent Davina Copelin said that hoaxes can cause significant disruptions, trigger emergency responses and divert resources away from serious threats.
Meanwhile, earlier on Monday, Australian authorities seized 2.7 tonnes of cocaine from a property northwest of Sydney in the largest seizure of the drug in national history.
The AFP said on Monday that investigators located the cocaine while executing a search warrant at a property in the suburb of Londonderry, 50 km northwest of central Sydney, on Friday.
During a search of three shipping containers at the rear of the property, investigators located the cocaine in plastic crates that had been buried in underground bunkers that were concealed by false container floors.
According to authorities, the seized volume of cocaine had an estimated street value of 816 million Australian dollars (571.3 million US dollars) and could have supplied about 3 million street-level deals.
Two men, aged 21 and 25, were arrested and have each been charged with possessing a commercial quantity of an unlawfully imported border-controlled drug, which carries a maximum penalty of life imprisonment.(Agency)
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