A court has sentenced an Australian man with schizophrenia to prison for reporting a bomb on board an airplane. Because of it, two Air Force fighters were scrambled into the air, and the plane with 363 passengers was forced to return to the departure airport, CNA reports.
According to the criminal case, 30-year-old Australian citizen Kevin Francis Hawkins and his wife were flying from Phuket to Perth via Singapore.
When the plane reached full altitude and the “fasten seat belts” sign went out, Hawkins stood up from his seat, walked up to the steward and said that he had a bomb with him.
The flight attendant asked the man again, but he ignored the question and returned to his seat. The incident was immediately reported to the senior officer on board, who also approached the Australian with questions. Hawkins confirmed his earlier statement and said the bomb was in his pants pocket. When asked to show the explosives, he took a nasal inhaler from his pocket.
The pilots decided to return to Singapore and kept an eye on Hawkins for the rest of the flight.
Singapore Air Force fighters were scrambled to escort the plane, and upon landing the plane was already waiting for the special services, who evacuated the passengers, checked the cabin, luggage and the Australian, but found nothing suspicious.
Hawkins was arrested and sent for psychiatric evaluation, and appeared in court on December 22.
During the hearing, it was announced that the man suffers from schizophrenia and major depressive disorder. At the time of the incident, he had just experienced a relapse of mental illness.
According to the defendant’s lawyer, during the flight it seemed to Hawkins that the plane would crash, that all the passengers were looking at him with hostility and talking about him, that his wife did not love him, and that a voice in his head persistently urged him to divorce his wife. Against this backdrop, the man decided that arrest would be his salvation, so he reported that he allegedly had a bomb.
The judge took all the facts into account, noting that Hawkins’ false threat was too costly for the state and also caused a lot of inconvenience to other passengers, and sentenced him to six months in prison.