Drunk Passenger Arrested on Bali-Australia Plane

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A drunk passenger attempting to enter the cockpit of a Virgin Blue airplane en route to Bali from Australia on Friday has been arrested, Reuters reported citing Indonesian television.

Indonesian television earlier reported that the flight was apparently hijacked by unidentified individuals, a claim the company denied.

The plane landed at the Denpasar airport on Bali at 2:43 p.m. local time and law enforcement arrested the intoxicated passenger. Representatives of the airline said no one had attempted to hijack the plane, and the incident had occurred as a result of “misunderstandings,” Agence France-Presse reported.

“The flight control center was first informed of the incident at 1:05 p.m. Western Indonesian time, and it was a signal about the hijacking,” senior transport ministry official Harry Bhakti S. Gumay said. An unidentified person managed to get inside the cockpit, the official explained.

The plane now remains on the airport’s tarmac, according to regulations that govern air travel.