Quick thinking by the passengers and flight crew on a Jetstar flight outside of Melbourne, Australia may have saved the day after a young man boarded the aircraft with a shotgun and knife.
Teenager Tackled After Boarding Jetstar Flight With Shotgun
A teenager dressed as a maintenance worker breached the fence at Melbourne’s Avalon Airport (AVV) and attempted to board a Jetstar aircraft bound for Sydney (SYD), JQ610 on Thursday, March 6, 2025, with a concealed shotgun and possibly a knife as well.
He showed up at the aircraft stating he was there to fix an onboard issue. That puzzled crewmembers, who were not aware of any issue onboard and had certainly not called for maintenance.
As that discussion unfolded, a passenger onboard named Barry Clark (a former sheep shearer) noticed that the boy had concealed the barrel of a shotgun. As he later remarked, “I thought to myself, that ain’t a tool that should be on a plane.”
The man jumped up and wrestled the boy to the floor with the aid of other passengers and crewmembers, including the captain of the flight. Ammunition was found along with the fireman.
All 160 passengers onboard were fine.
Here’s explosive video of what transpired onboard, as shot by a passenger in seat 1B:
A passenger around him can be heard repeatedly muttering, “How is this possible?!”
As another passenger later described it, “In a split second, the gentleman Barry Clark in 1C saw him and jumped him, tackled him, and got him in a choke lock, disarmed him.”
The boy was arrested and faces multiple criminal charges, but no motive has yet been established. It appears he was working alone.
Kudos to Clark and all who quickly jumped up to tackle the young man.
So all that was needed to board was a high vis vest? Scary. Good on Mr Clark.
Apparently so. Avalon airport certainly has a lot of difficult questions to answer.
There was a hole in the fence. (Unknown if the hole was cut by the wannabe hijacker or if it had already existed.)
The moral of the story is don’t mess with ex-shearers, particularly if they’re named Barry.
No, you got it all wrong!
He wasn’t an ex-shearer, he was a former shearer.
Tomatah/tomartah.
So… a bad guy with a gun got stopped by a good guy without a gun? The NRA would be furious.