A man walks past the Rain Vortex display at Jewel Changi Airport in Singapore on Feb. 27, 2020. Photo by AFP
An Australian tourist was sentenced to eight weeks in jail by a Singapore court on Wednesday after threatening twice to crash his flight while at Changi Airport.
Moncrieff Philip, 36, pleaded guilty to one charge of using threatening words to cause alarm, according to a report by Channel News Asia.
He had flown from Perth to Phuket with a transit stop in Singapore. However, upon arrival in Phuket, he was denied entry because a page of visas had been torn out of his passport, The Straits Times reported.
He was then placed on a return flight to Singapore, where authorities similarly refused him entry for the same reason.
While waiting at Changi Airport for a repatriation flight back to Perth, he made the first threat on Nov. 20, 2024, upset over his disrupted holiday plans.
He declared: “I want the aircraft to crash and kill everyone.”
A flight attendant overheard the remark and immediately alerted her managers and the captain.
After a consultation, the airline decided to remove him from the flight. Security personnel searched him and his luggage but found nothing incriminating.
He was subsequently placed on another repatriation flight, but he repeated his threat to crash the plane, prompting his arrest shortly after.
Prosecutors highlighted that Philip had made the threats on multiple occasions, causing significant alarm to airport staff and flight crew.
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