Sydney, Australia 6 Jun (ANA) - Passengers on a Virgin flight in Australia leapt out of the plane onto the tarmac after a man left a one-word note in the toilet, reportedly saying “bomb”. In an ordeal described by passengers as “terrifying”, the plane was surrounded by police and those aboard heard a call to “get out and run, run, run” after the aircraft landed at Albury, a regional town south-west of Sydney. Passengers were told to leave their luggage on board and to evacuate through an emergency door which had been “ripped off”. “The air hostess started shouting. She was saying ‘evacuate, evacuate. Leave all your belongings, jump out the window,’”  Wendy Willett, a passenger, told Sydney’s Daily Telegraph. “It was really scary, I was worried I wouldn’t be able to jump, but they said the police would help and catch us, which they did.” The evacuation reportedly followed an alert prompted by the discovery of the word “bomb”  on a sick bag that had been left in the toilet. The wording has yet to be confirmed. Police arrested a 30-year-old man who apparently jumped out of the aircraft along with the passengers.  “We were told to move and then the police started yelling ‘the man in red, the man in red’,” Ms Willett said. “The police tackled the man and shoved him against the fence and cuffed him. He kind of gave them a shrug, like he was saying ‘what I have I done’, but didn’t resist arrest.” Virgin Australia said a passenger – rather than staff - had said “get out and run, run, run” and that this prompted people to leap four feet to the tarmac rather than wait for the stairs. Police said the flight from Sydney, which had 42 passengers, was evacuated within five minutes of landing. A police spokeswoman later revealed the incident was not terror-related and the arrested man was “being very silly”. Ms Willett said the arrested man appeared “normal” and spent most of the flight reading, aside from a trip to the toilet. He was granted bail and will face court on July 4.(ANA)

FA/ANA/6 June 2017-----