KUALA LUMPUR, June 1 — The Victoria police have defended themselves against accusations that it had delayed its response to storm the Malaysia Airlines flight MH128 from a bomb scare last night.
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation reported Victoria Police Chief Commissioner Graham Ashton saying that the police had initially treated the situation as a terror attack, which could have been catastrophic had they just rushed in.
“We have to make sure that all possibilities are taken into account, including the possibilities of co-offenders.
“Or, if there was an explosive device, the possibility of there being other explosive devices that the sudden removal of passengers could cause an issue with,” he was quoted saying in a press conference.
He said that while he understood the anger from passengers, he did not see any issue with the delay by his team.
“I certainly appreciate when you’re on a plane in that situation one minute could seem like an hour.
“Looking at the chronology last night I’m not seeing any time gaps or delays that were problematic,” he added.
The pilot of the Kuala Lumpur-bound MH128 aborted the flight after the alleged hijacking attempt and returned to Melbourne Airport shortly after take-off.
Earlier today, the Sydney Morning Herald reported that the Victoria Police took 86 minutes before they could storm the Malaysian Airlines flight MH128 that turned back to Melbourne after the bomb scare, because of a bungle among the officers.
Citing an anonymous source, the report said the plane was stranded on the tarmac because of an on-call officer who failed to respond to an emergency message, followed by the response team later unable to locate firearms and body armour.
The report said that the police were poorly briefed and thought for nearly an hour that the man may have been carrying an explosive device, when it was reported later to be just a powerbank.
The source also said that the police were not informed that the man had already been restrained by crew and passengers.
