Australian creates chaos at Bali airport in ‘suicide’ standoff

Wednesday, 24 Jul, 2017 0

An Australian tourist caused havoc at Bali’s Nguruh Rai Airport on two separate occasions.

Gregory Butler, 46, stepped over a glass partition onto a narrow ledge above the airport departure hall and began ranting.

It caused a standoff for about 90 minutes before he was forcibly dragged to safety by another nman who tried to negotiate with him.

He was then detained by authorities.

Butler denied he had any intention to jump and it was simply a ‘protest’ against corrupt Australian officials.

Airport authorities later said they discovered anti-depressants in his bag and was then taken to hospital for psychiatric evaluation.

Just a day earlier he reportedly forced a cancellation of a Kuala Lumpur bound flight at the airport.

As the plane left the gate he knocked on the cockpit door saying someone was trying to kill him.

The pilot chose to return to the gate and Butler was detained overnight, airport officials said.

"For safety reasons the pilot decided to return to the apron and the flight was cancelled," said airport communications and legal chief, Arie Ahsanurrohin.

Ahsanurrohin said no charges are expected to be filed for either incident.

TravelMole Editorial Team

Editor for TravelMole North America and Asia pacific regions. Ray is a highly experienced (15+ years) skilled journalist and editor predominantly in travel, hospitality and lifestyle working with a huge number of major market-leading brands. He has also cover in-depth news, interviews and features in general business, finance, tech and geopolitical issues for a select few major news outlets and publishers.

NSW, Australia Welcome to New South Wales – a place to feel free, feel alive, feel new. As the official...

MGM Resorts International (NYSE: MGM) is an S&P 500® global entertainment company with national and international locations featuring best-in-class hotels...

Centara Hotels & Resorts is Thailand’s leading hotel operator. Its 93 properties span all major Thai destinations plus the Maldives,...

Our Mission Ecommerce has transformative powers, and we believe everyone should be able to take part. But outdated solutions and...

We are a small-group adventure travel operator offering more than 750 tours in 100 countries, on all seven continents. Our...

Here at Elegant Resorts, luxury travel is in our DNA. True pioneers in the industry, we were the first specialist...

Greater Fort Lauderdale’s assortment of adventures awaits you. Whether you want to relax on the beach as the sound of...

STA was established to support the growth of the travel and tourism sector by serving the needs of tourism companies...

Nium was founded on the mission to build the global payments infrastructure of tomorrow, today. With the onset of the on-demand...

Located in the Mediterranean and connecting Asia and European continents that are separated by the famous Bosphorus, Türkiye is a...

Family-owned Olympic Holidays has been arranging holidays to Greece, the Greek islands and Cyprus for more than half century. The company is unrivalled...