Sydney, May 30: A 40-year-old unemployed computer analyst was charged today in the attempted hijacking of a domestic Australian flight a day earlier, and accused of stabbing two flight attendants with sharp wooden stakes while trying to break into the plane's cockpit. Appearing in court today, David Mark Robinson of Melbourne was charged with one count of attempted hijacking and two counts of committing violence against a crew member. The attempted hijacking charge carries a maximum sentence of life imprisonment. Authorities said they believe the assailant was trying to take control of the Qantas flight after it departed Melbourne yesterday but that they didn't believe the attack was terrorism. Transport minister John Anderson described the attacker as "less than stable". Witnesses said a group of flight attendants and passengers, led by 28-year-old flight attendant Greg Kahn, subdued the assailant before the plane returned to land safely in Melbourne, where Robinson was taken into custody.

Kahn and one other flight attendant were hospitalised with stab wounds, and two passengers suffered light injuries.
Robinson made no application for bail in Melbourne Magistrates court today and was not required to enter a plea. He was ordered to reappear August 8.

Police said the suspect emerged from the seventh row, then minutes after Qantas Flight QF1737 took off from Melbourne en route to Tasmania, and that he wielded two wooden stakes 15 centimeters long as he tried to storm the locked cockpit. Bureau Report