Terminal evacuation caused by drink containers

The evacuation of the Qantas domestic terminal on January 25 at Perth Airport was sparked by concern over what has now been identified as four drink containers filled with “an innocuous substance.”

The terminal was evacuated for 45 minutes after a man who had travelled from Dubai to Perth and was catching an onward flight to Sydney on Qantas was found with the four bottles of liquid during security screening. The man was detained by Australian Federal Police on his arrival in Sydney and later released without charge.

The incident comes after Michael Carmody, the former head of security for the now defunct Federal Airports Corporation, warned that Australian domestic airports were particularly vulnerable to a terrorist attack. He said that in particular the lack of personal verification of the identity of passengers was a gaping hole which could be exploited by would-be terrorists, while he also called for increased use of profiling and technology in security assessment of airline passengers.