A 17-year-old boy has been charged after he allegedly entered a commercial flight in Australia with a gun, before being tackled and disarmed by passengers and crew members.
The teen allegedly tried to board Jetstar flight JQ610 from Avalon Airport just outside of Melbourne, bound for Sydney, around 2:20 p.m. on Thursday, Victoria Police and the airline said. He had climbed through a hole in the airport fence, police said, and was dressed as an aircraft maintenance worker, according to video of the incident and eyewitness accounts.
Passenger Barry Clark, who is being praised as a hero for taking action to disarm the teen, said the boy, who was also wearing a tool belt, tried to board the plane but was blocked by a flight attendant who questioned his security credentials.
“He got more agitated and more agitated and I thought, ‘Jeez, this is funny,’” Clark told Australian current affairs show, The Project. “I looked up and within a second I saw a barrel of a shotgun and I thought [to] myself, ‘That ain’t a tool that should be on a plane.’”
“Then I saw it toward her chest and so I thought, ‘Well, I’ve got to do something,’” Clark said.
“I was quietly confident I could handle him,” he said, adding, “you’ve just got to do what you’ve got to do.”
The 17-year-old has been charged with eight offenses including unlawfully taking control of an aircraft, endangering aircraft safety, carrying dangerous goods on a plane, a bomb hoax, possessing a firearm and traffic-related offenses, Victoria Police said in a statement.
There is no legal right to gun ownership in Australia, and the government requires individual shooters and each firearm to be licensed. Those under 18 in the state of Victoria can get a junior license but must meet a range of criteria and undertake safety training. Firearms and other weapons are banned from being taken on planes in carry on luggage, including replicas or imitation weapons.
While there have been violent attacks in Australia in recent years, including one in which six people were killed at a shopping center in Sydney’s Bondi in 2024, mass shootings are rare after an overhaul of the country’s gun laws in 1996 following the Port Arthur massacre in Tasmania that killed 35 people.
Victoria Police superintendent Michael Reid told local media he credited the passengers with restraining the teen during what would have been a “terrifying” moment. “Victoria Police really commend the bravery of those passengers who were able to overpower that male,” Reid said, according to the Associated Press.
The airport was shut down on Thursday and Clark’s flight was rebooked for Friday morning. Clark received a round of applause from Jetstar staff for his efforts when he landed at Sydney airport on Friday, video on ABC News showed.
Avalon Airport’s chief executive, Ari Suss, said Clark would be offered “free flights for life” from the airport for his bravery. “He is a hero. I told Barry he changed the course of history with what he did. I believe one of the Jetstar pilots also showed immense bravery,” he told ABC News.
Suss also said his team would work with Victoria Police on the investigation and to increase security.
Jetstar said in a statement it was working with authorities and was “sincerely grateful to the customers who assisted our crew to safely manage the situation.”
