Melbourne Airport bomb threat update: Accused Sri Lankan 'concerned' for his safety in custody, court told

A 25-year-old Sri Lankan man charged over a bomb threat on a Malaysia Airlines plane at Melbourne Airport does not appear in court over fears for his safety, as police defend their decision to force passengers to wait 90 terrifying minutes on the tarmac for officers to board, Radio Australia reported.

A Sri Lankan man charged over a bomb threat on a Malaysia Airlines plane at Melbourne Airport has avoided appearing in court because he felt unsafe, while police have defended their decision to force passengers to wait 90 terrifying minutes on the tarmac for officers to board.

Flight MH128 from Melbourne to Kuala Lumpur was forced to turn back shortly after take-off when a man tried to enter the cockpit while carrying what police described as a "speaker-type" object.

Police said the man, who was screaming that he had a bomb, was 25-year-old Sri Lankan catering student Manodh Monaragala Marks, who was living in Dandenong, in Melbourne's south-east.

Marks is charged with endangering the safety of an aircraft and was remanded in custody after a brief hearing at the Melbourne Magistrates Court.

The court heard he had concerns for his safety in custody and did not appear in person.

The court was also told Marks had requested to see a mental health nurse urgently, and had recently been a patient at Monash Health.

Police had earlier said Marks had a history of mental illness and was only released from psychiatric care on Wednesday.

He was scheduled to appear for a committal mention on August 24.

Crew members and at least one passenger said they overpowered him and tied him up with belts, but others said they were forced to wait more than an hour after landing for police to board.

In a recording of the pilot's radio call about the situation, he is heard saying: "We have a passenger claiming to have an explosive device, tried to enter the cockpit. He has been overpowered by passengers."

Witnesses said Marks tried to enter the cockpit about 11:30pm, and the plane returned to Melbourne Airport about six minutes later. Police did not board the plane until about 1:00am.

They said his device turned out to be a Bluetooth speaker or something similar, and did not pose a threat.

Passenger Laura, who asked for her surname to be withheld, said she was stuck seated metres from what she believed was an explosive device during a long wait for police to board.

"I think the worst part was that we were sitting on the aircraft for just under two hours, and we were under the impression that there was still an explosive on the aircraft," she said.

"We were online getting the live feed from news and that was when a lot of people found out it was [feared to be] an explosive, so a lot of people started to freak out once we'd actually touched down."

Robert Macdonald said the plane stopped, and passengers were told police would arrive in 10 minutes.

"An hour and 10 minutes later, they eventually came," he said.

"So we were sitting there and this guy is pinned down now and he had a potential bomb on board, and we sat there for an hour and 10 minutes. Ridiculous."

Selena Brown shared video of Marks being removed from the plane by heavily armed police.

She said most passengers were calm, but those with small children were upset.

"I thought it was really disappointing, only because we weren't updated all the time," Ms Brown said.

"We could see them [the police] all outside, but they weren't coming on the plane and nobody knew why."

Victoria Police Chief Commissioner Graham Ashton said police were initially treating the situation as a terrorist incident, which could have been made much worse if they had rushed to board the plane.

"We have to make sure that all possibilities are taken into account, including the possibilities of co-offenders," he said.

"Or, if there was an explosive device, the possibility of there being other explosive devices that the sudden removal of passengers could cause an issue with."

Commissioner Ashton said he understood the concern and frustration of passengers.

"I certainly appreciate when you're on a plane in that situation one minute could seem like an hour," he said.

"Looking at the chronology last night I'm not seeing any time gaps or delays that were problematic."

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews backed the police response, while praising passengers and crew for their actions on the flight.

"The objective in any serious incident like this is to get every member of the crew, every passenger off the plane safely, and that's what was able to be achieved," he said.

"I do want to take the opportunity to thank the crew and those very brave passengers who subdued this person."

Aviation management consultant Trevor Jensen said the delay in the police response seemed to be excessive, and may have caused more stress to passengers.

"That's something we have to look at, why we get these long delays in boarding the aircraft," he said.

"Normally in a security event police can board these aircraft fairly rapidly.

He said the use of Victoria Police's elite Special Operations Group officers seemed to show the AFP did not have the capability to respond to the incident.

"I would have thought that at a major airport in today's world, the capability of the federal police should be higher," Mr Jensen said.

"It might be better if the state police — who do have a capability — were [based] there.