On May 29, 2003, a routine QantasLink service, Flight 1737, from Melbourne to Tasmania became a terrifying fight for survival when a passenger armed with two sharpened wooden stakes launched a violent attack on the cabin crew in an attempted hijacking. As blood poured from his wounds, Cabin Manager Greg Khan fought desperately to prevent the attacker from reaching the flight deck. What followed was an extraordinary display of bravery that helped avert a potential aviation disaster.
The day began like any other for the crew of QantasLink Flight QF1737. Operated by Impulse Airlines, the afternoon service was scheduled to fly from Melbourne to Launceston in Tasmania.
Only 47 passengers were on board the Boeing 717. Looking after them were Cabin Manager Greg Khan and Flight Attendant Denise Hickson, while Captain Corey Purves and First Officer John Morgan were on the flight deck.
Among those travelling that afternoon was 40-year-old British passenger David Mark Robinson.
A Violent Attack Just Minutes After Takeoff
Robinson was seated in row 7. As soon as the seatbelt sign had been switched off, he stood up. Hickson saw this and didn’t think much of it at first. We’re all used to passengers standing up when they want! But Robinson looked agitated and started up the aisle toward the front.
No one knew Robinson was armed with two 15cm sharpened wooden stakes hidden in his jacket pocket.
Hickson sensed something was wrong and tried to intercept him. She was immediately attacked. Robinson then lunged for Khan.
He later told Australian media he believed the passenger was heading to the toilet. Then he noticed his ‘wide, staring eyes.’
“I thought he was just someone who freaked and wanted to get off the flight,” Khan explained. “As he got, like, two steps away from me, both arms came up, and he sort of had me in like a bear hug and was just stabbing the back of my head with what I saw; it looked like one of those wooden doorstep things. At that stage, I just thought, well, ‘you’re not getting in there to the flight deck.”
Despite receiving several stab wounds, which were now pouring with blood, Khan forced his head into his assailant’s chest and drove him down the aisle to row six. All the while, Robinson continued his frenzied attack, stabbing the back of Khan’s head.
Khan continued, “I was pushing him back, basically, until I could get him on the ground and he went down. I went down on top of him. I didn’t realise I was bleeding ’til then. I was sort of numb to any pain.”
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Passengers Fight Back Against the Hijacker
Witnessing what was happening, several passengers jumped to the stricken crew member’s aid. Domenic Bordin, Keith Charlton, Gregory Martin and Garry Stewart jumped from their seats and helped pin him down between two seats while the badly bleeding Hickson grabbed some plastic ties to restrain him.
Passengers said the frenzied attack lasted less than a minute. “The steward had a lot of blood on the back of his neck; he was good, very good, very brave,” said Joe Da Costa.
Derek Finlay, who also helped subdue Robinson, later told the press: “All I remember is the plane lifting off, me reading my magazine, then all of a sudden a girl screaming, Greg running by me and then I was on top of him and things were going crazy.”
“We Thought a Trolley Had Come Loose”
In the flight deck, the pilots initially thought that a trolley had come loose and struck the cockpit door.
Speaking after the incident, Captain Purves explained, “Approaching 8,000 feet, there was a bump against the cockpit door, not a very significant one, but there was one, and occasionally that can happen in the normal course of events because it’s a very small galley area.
“John and myself did subsequently hear some secondary bumps and commotion down the aisle, but of course we were not to know what was taking place at the time. We thought maybe initially a service trolley had come loose. Within 40 seconds of the initial bump, we got a call through to the cockpit and we were then made aware that there was a security threat against the safety of the aircraft.”
It was later revealed that, before they knew about the security threat, the screams led them to declare a ‘Pan-Pan’ call to air traffic control. The investigation also found that one crew member used an international hijacking code via the interphone to the flight deck. The crew members believed they had received a reply. But the flight crew never heard the message and found out much later that there had been an attempted hijacking and the crew had been injured.
Once the pilots knew what was happening in the cabin, they immediately initiated a return to Melbourne. The jet touched down safely, and the Australian Federal Police arrested Robinson.
The Cabin Crew Who Returned to the Skies
The injured Cabin Crew would spend the night at the Royal Melbourne Hospital. Paramedics also treated two passengers at the scene for minor injuries.
Khan would require 16 stitches. He went on to say: “I didn’t have time to feel afraid. He just came at me and I just sort of decided it wasn’t going to happen. We were well-trained on how to do these things, but adrenaline and instinct kicked in as well.”
Just five weeks later, both crew members had returned to the air, still bearing the physical scars of their attack but hiding any emotional scars they may have had.
Speaking to the press, Hickson said she was relieved and happy to be back in the air, to ‘have some sort of routine ’.
Khan said: “If anybody wants to come to the front toilet, I’ll just be watching them like a hawk.”
Later, he received the Bravery Medal from Victorian Governor John Landy at a ceremony at Government House in Melbourne. Four passengers who also helped overcome the would-be hijacker also received commendations for bravery.
Speaking at the ceremony, an emotional Khan said: “I got him to the ground, and he was still stabbing my head, and I was on top of him, and when I got to there I thought, ‘What am I going to do now?”
Mr Khan would also receive the inaugural International Air Transport Association International Aviation Security Award for Excellence in Athens in November 2003.
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A Disturbing Plan to Crash the Aircraft
After Robinson had been arrested, police searched him. He was found to have several aerosols and a cigarette lighter in his hand luggage, which he planned to use as flamethrowers.
Terrifyingly, it was also revealed that Robinson had attempted to hijack an aircraft in January of the same year. He told police that while travelling on a Hobart (HBA) to Melbourne (MEL) flight, he tried to open the cockpit door, but it was locked.
Mr Robinson said a flight attendant questioned him and told him to sit down, and crew members then kept watch on him for the rest of the flight.
Robinson later appeared at Melbourne Magistrates’ Court charged with attempting to hijack a plane – which carries a maximum term of life imprisonment – and attempted murder and grievous bodily harm. However, the Victorian Supreme Court jury found Robinson not guilty on grounds of mental impairment.
During the trial, he revealed that he had intended to take control of the plane and crash it into the Walls of Jerusalem National Park. This, Robinson believed, would ‘release the Devil from his lair and bring about Armageddon.’
He was ordered to undergo psychiatric testing and found to be severely paranoid schizophrenic. The judge ordered his indefinite retention within the Victorian mental health system.
How Qantas Flight 1737 Changed Aviation Security
The incident led to a review of several Australian aviation security measures. This included the strengthening of flight deck doors on Qantas’s 717 fleet.
Airport security staff stepped up searches of bags, passengers and crew. New regulations banned passengers from carrying sharp objects in their hand luggage.
As with previous safety, medical and security incidents, Qantas used the event during training for new entrant and recurrent crew members. Both Khan and Hickson were interviewed at length for the video. They discussed the horrific bloodstains all over the aircraft due to their injuries. They also revealed that one passenger complained that the plane was heading back to Melbourne despite the attempted hijacking.
After the attack, the number of cabin crew became a political issue in Australia. The federal transport minister explicitly ruled out reducing cabin crew ratios, citing QF1737 as evidence of cabin crew’s importance in maintaining aircraft safety and security.
More than two decades have passed since the terrifying events aboard QantasLink Flight 1737. In that time, aviation security has continued to evolve, with reinforced flight deck doors, tighter screening procedures and improved security training all helping to make commercial flying safer.
Yet, as this incident so vividly demonstrates, even the most sophisticated security measures cannot eliminate every threat.
For Greg Khan and Denise Hickson, an ordinary afternoon at work became a desperate fight to protect their colleagues and the passengers entrusted to their care.
Neither could have imagined what they would face when they reported for duty that morning. But when the unthinkable happened, their training, quick thinking and extraordinary courage helped prevent a potentially catastrophic outcome.
Cabin crew are often seen as the friendly faces who serve drinks, hand out meals and welcome passengers on board. But their most important responsibility has always been, and will always be, safety.
And sometimes, as the crew of QantasLink Flight 1737 discovered in May 2003, that responsibility demands a level of bravery few of us could ever imagine.
© Confessions of a Trolley Dolly