Air NZ flight diverted: Passenger charged with assaulting staff, claims no memory of incident

A 23-year-old man has appeared in a Melbourne court after an incident on an Air New Zealand flight bound for Auckland, which saw the plane diverted.

On Thursday, Swalyn Malaice Jackson Barton-Cookes, who was born in New Zealand and now resides in Perth, appeared in Melbourne’s Broadmeadows Magistrates’ Court charged with one count of assaulting a flight crew member, reported news.com.au.

According to legal documents sighted by the Australian news outlet, police allege that Barton-Cookes swore “in an aggressive manner” and was disrupting passengers an hour into the flight.

Barton-Cookes was handcuffed and removed from Air NZ flight NZ176 by Australian Federal Police after the flight was forced to divert to Melbourne Airport on Tuesday.

Outside court, Barton-Cookes told 7News he “can’t remember” the incident on the flight.

“Life’s changing. Wake up. Be a better person,” he added.

If convicted, the crime carries a maximum penalty of 20 years imprisonment.

A woman on the flight, who wished to remain anonymous, described several people having to hold a disruptive passenger down.

“My partner tapped me on the shoulder and pointed to a flight attendant standing over the guy who was arrested and yelling at him, ‘Sit down! Sit the f*** down! Don’t move!’

“The flight attendant was trying to use his own force to hold this guy down and he was pretty big.”

She said two other passengers were big enough to take the man to the back of the plane.

“They shoved him to the ground, tied him up and were yelling at him,” she said.

“He was budging, yelling, ‘let go of me!’ and saying he wanted to mess stuff up. The other passengers were trying to restrain him from hurting the flight attendants or anyone else on board.”

Air NZ chief operational integrity and safety officer Captain David Morgan said the flight was able to reach its final destination in Auckland a short time after the diversion.

“The flight continued on to Auckland and landed at 8.50am, a delay of approximately 90 minutes,” Morgan said in a statement.

“Our crew managed this incident well, but incidents like this are distressing for customers and our people and we have zero tolerance for this sort of behaviour on our aircraft.

“We apologise for any inconvenience the diversion caused, but it was for the safety of everyone onboard and safety is something we won’t compromise on.”