[url]http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,88040,00.html[/url]

Two Qantas Attendants Stabbed in Mid-Flight Scuffle

Thursday, May 29, 2003


SYDNEY, Australia  — A man shouting threats used a sharpened wooden instrument to try to force his way into the cockpit of a domestic Qantas (search) flight Thursday, stabbing two flight attendants in his attempt, the government said.

The plane had departed the southeastern city of Melbourne (search) for the southern island of Tasmania when he tried to storm the cockpit, Transport Minister John Anderson told reporters in a hastily arranged press briefing.

Two flight attendants with Australia's national air carrier were stabbed and two other passengers were also injured as they overwhelmed the man, who Anderson described as "an individual who was less than stable."

Anderson said he did not believe it was a terrorist attack and did not identify the man.

"Although it looks premeditated, it doesn't look like it was an act of terrorism," Anderson said.

The man was now in custody and being interviewed by police, said Jane O'Brien, spokeswoman for the Australian Federal Police.

Anderson said the wooden weapon had gone through security checks unnoticed, calling the oversight a "lesson about unforeseen tools being used."

He said the man shouted threats as he attempted to storm the cockpit but did not elaborate. He said there were no sky marshals on board the flight.

"We'll leave no stone unturned, plainly we don't want to see a repeat of this," Anderson said.

The plane turned around and landed at Melbourne not long after it had departed, where police and emergency services rushed to the scene.

Police met passengers in the departure lounge at Melbourne's airport for further questioning.

A Qantas spokeswoman told The Associated Press that the national carrier could not make any statement until it had more information.

The flight attendants, a man in his late 30s and a woman in her 20s, were taken to a nearby hospital. They were in stable condition with facial injuries, Metropolitan Ambulance spokesman James Howe said. Two passengers were treated by paramedics at the scene for minor injuries, Howe told reporters.

Gee I wonder if it was a pencil.

You don't think the media would over dramatize something like a pencil do you?  I mean calling a penicil a "sharpened wooden instrument" is just not in character with today's media.  They're all about facts and sticking to the story.  How dare you imply they might have attempted to stretch the truth.  [;)]

Don't underestimate pencils.  Those electric sharpeners can get those things dangerously sharp.  Ban wooden pencils, after all it is for the children.

Good, I only use mechanical anyways.  And the people who never heard of mechanical pencils make too much damm noise in the library with that damm electric sharpener.  I hope they have a spare or sharpener during finals when their led breaks.

Those kids with the electric sharpeners in the library are the ones who take class a way too serious.  But somehow they are usually the ones who get A's.  hmmm, maybe I should start sitting next to them.