A Virgin plane was swiftly evacuated and a passenger arrested after an alarming note was discovered on the flight from Sydney to Albury.
Passengers aboard VA1174 jumped more than a metre from the plane onto the tarmac at Albury Airport on Tuesday morning as soon as the 68-seater turboprop landed about 9.30am on Tuesday.
NSW Police say emergency services were called after a note written on a sick bag was discovered in the plane’s toilet by another passenger as it approached Albury.
“It was just someone being very silly,” a police spokeswoman later told AAP.
“It wasn’t a bomb threat at all. It was not terror-related. It was just something we were concerned about and we wanted to make sure it was OK.”
A man who was among the 42 passengers on the flight was arrested on the tarmac and taken to Albury Police Station. It’s possible he could be charged over the incident.
Police asked passengers if anyone had any issues with the man and spoke to those who'd been seated near him. The arrested passenger was said to be calm throughout the flight. He read a novel and went to the bathroom once. Local police congratulated cabin crew and passengers for the swift evacuation.
"The plane landed at 9.35am and within five minutes we had the plane and the occupants secure and safe," Albury commander Superintendent Evan Quarmby told reporters.
"All of the occupants of the aeroplane were evacuated safely, very efficiently and should all be congratulated on the assistance they've given to police this morning."
Supt Quarmby said the Virgin plane was completely searched and handed back to the airline.
It was initially reported the doors of the plane were "ripped off" by authorities but Virgin later clarified they were opened from the inside, likely by cabin crew. Passengers were told to leave their luggage and jump about 1.2 metres from the exits onto the tarmac. Sydney retiree Wendy Willett said a hostess shouted: "Evacuate, evacuate. Leave all your belongings, jump out the window."
Another passenger told AAP he heard cabin crew saying: "Leave your luggage. Get out and run, run, run." A Virgin spokeswoman said crew denied saying that, however. She suggested a passenger caught up in the commotion may have yelled out "run, run, run".
Michelle McNamara, who works for a car hire company in the airport terminal, said plainclothes police, uniformed officers, firefighters and ambulance crews closed off half the terminal during the operation.
"It's normally quiet, it's Albury Airport," she told AAP on Tuesday. "It's a bit concerning. With all that's happening in the world, it makes you think the worst."
The Albury incident comes a week after a mentally ill man threatened to blow up a Malaysia Airlines flight after it left Melbourne Airport.
Terrified passengers waited 90 minutes to be evacuated from the plane after it landed back at Tullamarine. They didn't know at the time the bomb threat was a hoax.