The Australian tourist who claims he was “joking” when threatening to jump off an AirAsia flight to Bali will not be allowed into Indonesia for six months.
Sydney man Aaron Gerrard Dolden, 25, along with another man, Pasalic Alen, 27, have been banned by the Immigration Department from entering Indonesia for six months because they were “unruly passengers.”
Dolden, who had been traveling to Bali for holiday with a group of guys, was told by AirAsia crew to sit down multiple times during his flight to Bali. AirAsia crew said Dolden threatened to jump from the plane before meal service, while the group kept asking for beers and kept pushing the button requesting help from the flight attendants. The group also apparently blocked the toilets and made fun of crew members.
However, despite Dolden and company’s clearly inappropriate behavior that got he and Alen blacklisted from Indo, he was found not to be in breach of aviation law so he is not currently under arrest, airport authority officer Ade Yuliana said on Friday.
His “unruly act” was determined not to be premeditated and was instead influenced by excessive alcohol, an airport authority letter said. Nor was the incident indicative of any mental disorder or radical movement—aka he was just being stupid and drunk.
Ade explained that immigration will soon return Dolden’s passport.
“Upon which he will return to his country soon,” Ade said. “He’s also been blacklisted from entering Indonesia for the next six months. He is not under arrest,” Ade said, as quoted by the Sydney Morning Herald.
“Let this be a lesson, that everybody has to obey the law of the country, wherever they are,” Ade aded.
In an interview with security officer Suradi Haryanto, Dolden said he wasn’t serious about jumping off the plane, that he was only joking.
“At that time my friend said he often goes skydiving and I joked back by saying: ‘Don’t worry I will be the first person to jump from the plane right now’. The crew talked to me and said I couldn’t say that and that security would be called upon arrival. I then said: ‘We are not scared of security,’” the transcript quoted Dolden as saying, according to the SMH.
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