Qantas passengers escorted through Melbourne airport after Sydney security breach

A Qantas passenger says up to 60 people were not screened in a security mishap at Sydney airport, leading to armed federal police escorting weary travellers through a Melbourne terminal on Wednesday night. Qantas flight QF487 from Sydney to Melbourne landed at 9.01pm, before the captain informed 225 passengers and crew onboard that security officials would take them through the airport because a person had boarded without completing airport security in Sydney.<br/>A passenger, who spoke on Melbourne radio station 3AW on the condition of anonymity, said he was at the centre of the security incident after he flew from Orange – which does not screen passengers – and was not checked before entering the screened area of Sydney airport. “I reckon there were between 40 to 60 passengers that all were unscreened,” he said. The passenger said he reported not being checked to Qantas staff in the Sydney business lounge as he was a regular traveller and knew he should have been screened, before going back through Sydney airport security. “I thought that would be the end of it,” he said. The man said airport staff told him “they had never seen a security breach like this before” and they attempted to review CCTV footage to determine how many people had not been screened. The passenger said he thought the armed escort at Melbourne airport would have occurred for other flights landing elsewhere, given he was not the only Qantas passenger to enter the air-side of the Sydney terminal without being checked. A Qantas spokesperson said in a statement that a passenger boarded the Melbourne-bound flight after inadvertently passing from an unscreened to a screened part of Sydney airport.<br/>