Security alert on Sydney flight after text hoax

CANBERRA - An Italian man aboard a flight from Sydney to Vienna caused a major security alert when he text messaged his wife to tell her his plane had been hijacked by terrorists.

The man, reported to be Italian tourist Antonio Casale, 35, sent the message to his wife as a joke after taking off on a Lauda Austrian Airlines flight from Sydney last Sunday night, the federal government said.

Mr Casale claimed terrorists were in control of the plane and were taking the passengers to an unknown destination.

His distressed wife contacted Italian police, who immediately contacted the Italian embassy in Canberra, who in turn contacted Australian Federal Police, fearing a September 11 style terrorist attack.

A spokesman for Deputy Prime Minister John Anderson, who is also transport minister, said authorities were able to quickly work out Mr Casale's identity and discover the message was a hoax.

The pilot of the plane was reportedly contacted by counter-terrorism negotiators mid-air, who found him oblivious to any hijacking attempt.

"The Italian police picked up on it, then the Italian embassy, the Australian Federal Police (AFP) came in on it and it was quite a big operation," Mr Anderson's spokesman said.

He said while Mr Casale had been stupid to attempt such a stunt, the incident had proved authorities were able to quickly deal with terrorist threats.

"This is effectively a text book operation from start to finish by our authorities," the spokesman said.

"They were made aware of the alleged threat in fairly short order and were able to work out who the passenger was and where he was sitting and so on and they were able to provide the details to authorities overseas to discover this was a hoax.

"Federal police and other authorities over here have got enough on their plate without having to worry about stupidity like this as well."

Mr Anderson's spokesman said the text message about the hijacked plane was sent from Kuala Lumpur during a re-fuelling stop.

The Sunday Telegraph reported Mr Casale was taken aside by the plane's captain and detained by police when the plane landed in Vienna.

He was questioned by police and later released without charge.

- AAP