Man Stabs 2 People on Australian Jetliner

Thursday, May 29, 2003
(12:28 PM)
By Jamie Tarabay
Associated Press Writer

The male attendant had a gash in the back of his head and other cuts. The woman had facial cuts, Dixon said. Two passengers also were slightly injured as they and the crew restrained the man and bound his hands with plastic straps. The transport minister said the wooden weapons had gone through security checks unnoticed, calling the oversight a ``lesson about unforeseen tools being used.''

SYDNEY, Australia -- AP
A would-be hijacker armed with wooden stakes stabbed two flight attendants as he tried to break into the cockpit of an Australian jetliner Thursday, apparently in an attempt to crash the plane, the government said.

Cabin crew and passengers on the domestic flight carrying 53 people overpowered and disarmed the man.

``We believe he was trying to take over the plane,'' Australian Federal Police agent Stephen Cato was quoted as saying by Australian Associated Press.

Federal Transport Minister John Anderson described the man as ``less than stable'' and said the attack did not appear linked to terrorism.

The attack, one of the worst in Australian aviation history, happened about 10 minutes after the Qantas flight took off from Melbourne for Launceston in the island state of Tasmania.

The Boeing 717 was forced to return to Melbourne, where police arrested the 40-year-old man, who reportedly is Australian. The injured flight attendants, a man in his 30s and a woman in her 20s, were hospitalized in stable condition.

Cato said no motive had been established.
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2003 © The Associated Press.

Dan