Bomb scare twist as new theory reveals what sparked panic on packed Air New Zealand flight at Sydney Airport

A passenger on the Air New Zealand flight subjected to a bomb scare in Sydney Airport on Saturday evening has a revealed a new theory on what caused it. 

‘There may have been a note on the plane – that is what caused this – so we all sort of gathered the note had been picked up on the plane,’ Penny Nel told Radio New Zealand. 

The flight carrying 140 passengers from Wellington landed in Sydney at around 5.40pm but stayed parked and isolated on the tarmac after a bomb threat was reported on board. 

Up to 40 emergency crews, including heavily armed officers, responded to the threat.

Ms Nel said she didn’t notice anything during the flight until they were close to arriving in Sydney.

‘There was a slight bit of movement near the cockpit, I’d say probably 15 minutes before we landed. I thought “Oh, there’s lots of activity up there”, but that was about all.’

She said she had not seen the note herself and that ‘Hopefully it was just a ruse and it was just somebody playing the silly goat and causing such a huge amount of disruption.’

The Wellington woman, who was on her way to Australia to meet up with her husband and their daughter, said the pilot spoke over the intercom when the plane stopped in Sydney. 

‘He said … there’s a slight problem, there’s a security issue and we have been told to hold where we are.’

Passengers initially thought it may have been something to do with King Charles’ arrival hours earlier, and didn’t think it was to to with their plane. 

But after an hour on the ground, the person sitting next to Ms Nel showed her a news report on their phone about a bomb scare and said it was referring to their flight. 

She said as word got around the plane, one of the passengers got ‘very agitated and scared’.

‘He was very vocal and it did take a few of the cabin crew – who were excellent – to just calm him down and get him to lower the tone, because obviously he was causing anxiety amongst the rest of the passengers,’ she said.

Ms Nel said people were then thinking ‘Why don’t you let us off the plane if there’s a bomb? I think everyone was thinking that.’

Soon after, she and others onboard noticed all the police cars, ambulances and people in high-vis jackets in the vicinity of the plane. 

‘It all started getting rather real, I think, at that point,’ she said.

Despite the traumatic situation, she said some people on the plane managed to make a few jokes and be pragmatic about what was happening.

The cabin crew and pilot kept them updated at regular intervals. 

When they were eventually allowed to get off the plane, the passengers had to line up with their bags in a room as a sniffer dog checked them all.

Up to 40 emergency crews, including heavily armed officers (pictured), responded to the threat

Each passenger was also taken aside by a police officer and questioned.

It then took another hour for their luggage to come through on the carousel, ‘so that must have also been going through some sort of screening, I should imagine,’ Ms Nel said.

She said the police officers speaking to the passengers did so in a supportive way.  

‘They were not intimidating. Very polite… they couldn’t have been more professional… we actually felt very assured at them being there,’ Ms Nel told the radio station. 

Speaking on Saturday night after the scare, she said she did not think she would get much sleep.

‘I feel a little bit wound up … just the adrenaline still going.’

Daily Mail Australia has contacted Air New Zealand and Sydney Airport for comment about whether a note was found on the plane.