A Scoot flight, TR16, which was bound for Perth, returned to Singapore Changi Airport on 12 October 2023, after receiving a bomb threat onboard. The aircraft landed safely and passengers were evacuated.
By: Gareth
Published On: 16 October 2023, 10.08pm (GMT +8)
A Scoot Boeing 787 registered 9V-OJA. Photo: Scoot (www.flyscoot.com)
A Scoot Boeing 787-9 (Reg: 9V-OJF) bound for Perth was diverted back to Singapore Changi Airport on Thursday (Oct 12) after a bomb threat was reported on board. 363 passengers and 9 crew members were on board the aircraft at the time of the incident.
Data from flight tracking app Flightradar24 showed Flight TR16/TRW16 departing from Singapore Changi Airport’s Runway 20L at 1611 hours local time (GMT +8) (0811 UTC) bound for Perth Airport in Western Australia. The aircraft was originally scheduled to depart at 1530 local, and arrive in Perth at 2035 hours.
Flight Path of TR16. Photo: FlightRadar24 (www.flightradar24.com)
At around 0841 UTC, a bomb threat was reported to controllers over Indonesia’s Bangka Island, northwest of Palembang. The crew declared an emergency and requested to return to Singapore. A 30-year-old passenger on board the plane informed The Straits Times that passengers were told the aircraft had to return due to “minor issues”. Those on board were generally calm and there was not much alarm in the cabin, he added. The Republic of Singapore Air Force said later that evening in a Facebook post that it scrambled 2 F-15SG fighter jets in response to the threat, which escorted the aircraft until it landed in Singapore. According to a spokesman for Scoot, emergency services were also activated at the airport. The aircraft was placed in a holding pattern over the South China Sea east of Malaysia, roughly 50 km off the coast of Bandar Penawar in Johor, before being vectored in for an approach to Runway 02R. The flight landed without further incident at 1227 UTC. The 30-year-old Australian national who is accused of making the bomb threat has been arrested and is cooperating with police investigations, the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore reported in a statement.
To accommodate the emergency aircraft, at least 3 other flights were put in holding patterns over the Riau Islands and Runway 02R was temporarily closed. According to CNA, these flights included SQ331 from Paris, UA29 from San Francisco, and 6E1013 from New Delhi. They later landed between 1208 UTC and 1322 UTC. According to website airfleets.net, the aircraft involved in the incident, 9V-OJF, had a serial number of 37119. It first flew on 16 August 2015 with the test registration N8572C and was delivered to Scoot 2 months later, where it has remained ever since. The 8.2-year-old aircraft has been involved in a prior incident, where its main tyres popped after a flight to Taipei. This is the second time in 13 months that an aircraft operated by Singapore Airlines or one of its partner airlines has been involved in a bomb threat. On Sept 28, 2022, Singapore Airlines Flight SQ33 from San Francisco was escorted by 2 RSAF F-15SG jets before landing at Singapore Changi Airport. A 37-year-old American man was arrested and sentenced to 4 weeks’ jail for assaulting an air steward and given a stern warning about the bomb threat. He was diagnosed with schizophrenia after his arrest.
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