{"id":81672,"date":"2026-09-03T00:17:03","date_gmt":"2026-09-02T16:17:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=81672"},"modified":"2026-09-03T00:17:03","modified_gmt":"2026-09-02T16:17:03","slug":"jail-for-traveller-over-drunken-ruckus-at-changi-airport-that-triggered-anti-hijack-button-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=81672","title":{"rendered":"Jail for traveller over drunken ruckus at Changi Airport that triggered anti-hijack button"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"text-primary article-summary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">SINGAPORE \u2013 After drinking an entire 700ml bottle of whiskey, a man went to Changi Airport where <a href=\"https:\/\/www.straitstimes.com\/singapore\/courts-crime\/man-charged-with-being-drunken-nuisance-at-changi-airport-bulldozing-past-airport-staff?ref=inline-article\" rel=\"noopener\" class=\"gap-x-04 items-center inline text-primary-60 select-auto\" aria-label=\"link\" target=\"_blank\" data-testid=\"custom-link\"><span class=\"inline font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"typography-test-id\">he created a ruckus<\/span><\/a> after being<!-- --> <!-- -->barred from boarding his Malaysia-bound flight with budget carrier Scoot.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">British national Arudchelvan Karnan, 25, shoved<!-- --> <!-- -->a Scoot employee aside and headed<!-- --> <!-- -->towards the plane via an aerobridge, prompting a security officer to press an anti-hijack button.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">An anti-hijack door at the gate to the plane then closed, and Arudchelvan was arrested soon after.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">His actions caused the flight\u2019s departure to be delayed by 53 minutes, the court heard.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">Arudchelvan was sentenced to eight weeks\u2019 jail and a fine of $2,800 on Sept 2.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">He had pleaded guilty to one count each of harassment, public drunkenness and unlawfully entering a protected place.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">Court documents stated that he had flown<!-- --> <!-- -->to Singapore from Australia on July 19 and stayed at a Little India hotel.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">The next morning,<!-- --> <!-- -->he drank an entire 700ml bottle of Jack Daniel\u2019s whiskey at the hotel<!-- --> <!-- -->and became drunk.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">He later went to Changi Airport Terminal 1, where he passed through the immigration gates and made his way to Gate C17 in the departure hall.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">In a seating area near the aerobridge linking Gate C17 to Flight TR472, he started shouting loudly, annoying other passengers.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">Some of them told a Scoot employee about the situation, and she approached Arudchelvan, who had his earphones on.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">He accused the woman of being a racist and abused her with vulgar language.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">Deputy Public Prosecutor Darren Ang told the court that he continued shouting.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">\u201cSubsequently, a decision was made to off-board the accused from TR472&#8230; At about 4.05pm, all passengers of TR472 except the accused had passed the boarding counter,\u201d<!-- --> <!-- -->he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">When Arudchelvan approached the counter, another Scoot employee told him that he was not allowed to board the flight.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">To prevent him from boarding the flight, she extended a connecting strip across two bollards and stood behind them.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">Despite this, he ducked under the strip and headed towards the aerobridge, shoving the woman and causing her to fall.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">She alerted a nearby security officer who pressed the anti-hijack button. The latter also requested assistance from the Airport Police Division.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">Arudchelvan could not board the flight when the anti-hijack door closed.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">When an auxiliary police officer was escorting him away, he launched into an expletive-laden tirade against Singapore and Malaysia, adding: \u201cI want England. Take me to England right now.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">Arudchelvan was arrested thereafter.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">On Sept 2, the DPP urged the court to sentence the offender to fines and up to 12 weeks\u2019 jail. He stressed that Arudchelvan had posed a security risk to the passengers of Flight TR472 and the officers within a sensitive facility.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">Defence lawyer K. Sathinathan pleaded for his client to be fined instead.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">He said there were no records of injuries in this case and there was also no damage to property.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<center><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.straitstimes.com\/singapore\/courts-crime\/jail-for-traveller-over-drunken-ruckus-at-changi-airport-that-triggered-anti-hijack-button\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read Full Article At Source <\/a><br \/>\n<center\/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>SINGAPORE \u2013 After drinking an entire 700ml bottle of whiskey, a man went to Changi Airport where he created a ruckus after being barred from&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":81673,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2611],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-81672","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-buzz-headlines","wpcat-2611-id"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81672","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=81672"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81672\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/81673"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=81672"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=81672"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=81672"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}