EXCLUSIVE How four simple words on a Virgin Australia flight from Sydney to Brisbane sparked a six-month nightmare

Daily Mail​

9 hours ago

A disability care manager accused of making a bomb threat on a flight out of Sydney has had a major legal win after insisting a harmless phrase he used was misunderstood.
Bernhard Roduner was on board a Virgin Australia plane ready to take off to Brisbane when a fellow passenger reported hearing him say 'bomb' in a phone conversation.
Mr Roduner, who was returning from a trip visiting friends in Tasmania, said it was possible he was telling a colleague 'Tassie is the bomb' as a compliment to the Apple Isle.
He also suspected the woman seated in front of him on VA965 might have been concerned about hearing the word 'bomb' because he looked vaguely Middle Eastern.
Mr Roduner comes from a prominent Queensland family of restaurateurs and, while studying nursing, spent two years working at Brisbane Airport, including in security roles.
The 45-year-old had the bomb threat charge dismissed this month but was less fortunate in explaining why he had been travelling on a ticket in another person's name.
Mr Roduner said a friend in Tasmania had booked two flights for his journey home - one from Hobart to Sydney and another to Brisbane - through the Virgin Australia app.
When Mr Roduner got to Sydney on January 14 and missed his connecting flight, he bought a Virgin ticket to Brisbane using his debit card and driver's licence as identification.
Unknown to him, the ticket was issued in his friend's name.
Mr Roduner boarded his Virgin flight and was speaking on the phone to a colleague before final preparations for take-off began.
The plane had started taxiing down the runway when there was an announcement it would be returning to the terminal, without any further explanation.
Two federal police then boarded the aircraft and approached Mr Roduner, asking if he was 'Mr Morgan', the friend who had booked his original flight from Tasmania.
Mr Roduner said he provided proof he had paid for the ticket but was informed another passenger had made an accusation against him.
'One of the police goes, "Would you please get your luggage. Apparently you've made a threat, please come outside with me",' Mr Roduner said.
'I was confused as to what was going on. It was terrible.'
Mr Roduner became even more confused when he was told the female passenger seated in front of him had heard him use the word 'bomb' in his earlier telephone chat.
'I didn't even see the lady,' he said.
'I don't have anything against her if she felt concerned but I really think this has gotten out of hand.
'It could have been I said "Tassie is the bomb", because I do say that - that's the only thing I can think of.
'I was in a total mess. I was shaking. I even said, "This is because of the way I look". I have a beard, I do look Middle Eastern, but my dad is Swiss-German and my mum is Singaporean.'
The female passenger also told police she heard Mr Roduner say on the phone, 'No, I'm not going to crash the plane' and her daughter had been concerned by that statement.
She described Mr Roduner as 'being in his late 30s to early 40s with brown shorter-length hair, and of Middle Eastern appearance'.
Mr Roduner was escorted off the flight as other passengers filmed him.
After a search, it was determined there was no bomb on the aircraft.
Mr Roduner was charged with threatening aviation security and taking a flight with a ticket obtained using false identity information. A third charge of using false identification at an airport was later added.
The two identity charges each carry a maximum penalty of one year in prison and the offence of threatening aviation security carries a potential $16,500 fine.
Mr Roduner, from Sunnybank Hills on Brisbane's outskirts, appeared via audio-visual link from Queensland when his matter was first mentioned at Downing Centre Local Court in March.
He was not represented by a lawyer but entered not guilty pleas to the first two charges after explaining what had happened to the registrar handling the case.
Mr Roduner also wrote to Virgin, stating his experience on January 14 had left him suffering severe anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder.
'During the flight, I believe I was unfairly judged based on a misunderstanding and, possibly, my ethnicity,' he wrote.
'I was not allowed to return home or resume work for 24 hours due to this situation, which I feel was handled in a one-sided manner.'
Mr Roduner said he had not received a reply to his correspondence but Virgin Australia had sent an email threatening to restrict his future airline use.
'This experience was deeply humiliating and left me feeling unfairly treated, as though I were being profiled or perceived as a threat,' he wrote.
'I was treated as if I were a criminal or a terrorist, which is not only untrue but also profoundly upsetting.'
When Mr Roduner appeared before Deputy Chief Magistrate Michael Antrum at Downing Centre Local Court on June 10, the charge of threatening aviation security was withdrawn.
'He didn't even need to hear from me,' Mr Roduner told Daily Mail Australia of that brief hearing.
'There wasn't any evidence that I was a threat to aviation security. This has caused me that much stress. It's ridiculous.'
Mr Roduner said he could not defend the two charges related to travelling under a false name - even though he blamed Virgin Australia for the mix-up - because the law was 'black and white'.
He pleaded guilty to taking a flight with a ticket obtained using false identity information as well as using false identification at an airport. He will be sentenced next month.
Mr Roduner's parents Alfred and Deanna ran the popular Grappino Trattoria Ristorante at Paddington in Brisbane's inner-city for almost 20 years.
His brother Theo is one of two founders of Gnocchi Gnocchi Brothers, a chain specialising in Italian potato dumplings which has six outlets in Queensland and one in Sydney.