{"id":625524,"date":"2026-04-23T10:44:19","date_gmt":"2026-04-23T10:44:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/625524\/"},"modified":"2026-04-23T10:44:19","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T10:44:19","slug":"keiron-beau-james-hedges-charged-with-threatening-to-blow-up-perth-airport-terminal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/625524\/","title":{"rendered":"Keiron Beau James Hedges charged with threatening to ‘blow up’ Perth Airport terminal"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Victorian man who allegedly threatened to “blow up” Perth Airport’s main international terminal, forcing its evacuation and causing traveller chaos, has appeared in court.<\/p>\n

Part of Terminal 1 was closed for several hours on Wednesday afternoon, leading to multiple flight delays after the discovery of a suspicious backpack left unattended outside the terminal.<\/p>\n

Crowds gathered outside the terminal’s entrance as the Australian Federal Police (AFP) and WA Police investigated the incident after establishing an “exclusion zone”.<\/p>\n

The backpack was examined by the WA Police bomb squad and declared safe.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Passengers were let back into Terminal 1 at around 6.30pm. (ABC News: Samantha Goerling)<\/p>\n

The AFP later confirmed a man had been arrested in the Perth CBD a short time later.<\/p>\n

Threats a ‘misunderstanding’<\/p>\n

Keiron Beau James Hedges, 57, was initially due to face Perth Magistrates Court charged with two offences.<\/p>\n

They were:<\/p>\n

Entering an airside security zone of a security controlled airport without permission, and;Making a false communication which could be inferred as a threat to an aerodrome.<\/p>\n

Appearing in court on Thursday, it was revealed the first charge would be dropped and bail would be opposed.<\/p>\n

The magistrate read out the second charge to Mr Hedges, saying it was alleged he threatened to “blow this place up”.<\/p>\n

\"Keiron<\/p>\n

Keiron Beau James Hedges has been charged over an incident at Perth Airport on April 22, 2026.\u00a0 (Supplied)<\/p>\n

Mr Hedges told the court from the dock that there was misunderstanding about “what I actually meant when I said that”.<\/p>\n

Mr Hedges, who was not represented in court earlier in the day, was told by the magistrate to get legal advice, before coming back to the court later in the afternoon.<\/p>\n

Further charges considered<\/p>\n

During Mr Hedges’s second appearance, prosecutor Rodney Nguyen opposed bail, saying the AFP was considering further charges.<\/p>\n

The prosecutor told the court that soon after 2:20pm Wednesday, Mr Hedges walked into the border security passport processing area and when he was asked for a passport, he didn’t have one.<\/p>\n

\"Passengers<\/p>\n

Passengers wait outside the Perth Airport Terminal 1 while the Australian Federal Police and WA Police investigate a reported unattended bag. (ABC News: Samantha Goerling)<\/p>\n

The court was told Mr Hedges was asked to leave and he told a guard to “f**k off” before allegedly saying: “I am going to blow this place up.”<\/p>\n

The AFP was soon informed about an unattended backpack found on a bin, Mr Nguyen said.<\/p>\n

The court heard an exclusion zone was set up at roughly 3:30pm around the backpack, which was to be examined by the bomb squad.<\/p>\n

Delay and disruption<\/p>\n

Mr Nguyen told the court 450 incoming passengers on two planes were on the aircraft for three hours, and 1,200 members of the public were “unable to go about their business”.<\/p>\n

Traffic was prevented from entering the airport car park, and train services were delayed.<\/p>\n

The airport was cleared of any potentially hazardous materials at about 6:30pm.<\/p>\n

The prosecutor said Mr Hedges was arrested in the CBD and taken to the AFP’s airport office where he made admissions.<\/p>\n

\"Prosecutor<\/p>\n

Prosecutor Ronald Nguyen says the Australian Federal Police are considering further charges against Mr Hedges.\u00a0 (ABC News: David Weber)<\/p>\n

He allegedly said to police “I yelled out the airport was going to be blown up” and “if they didn’t leave they would be killed”.<\/p>\n

A duty lawyer, speaking on Mr Hedges’s behalf, said he was a permanent resident living in Victoria, who had previously lived in WA.<\/p>\n

She said he was on a disability support pension.<\/p>\n

When Mr Hedges, who tried to interject during much of the proceedings, was informed there may be further charges, he said “that’s not my fault”.<\/p>\n

The magistrate deferred hearing his bail application and ordered a mental health assessment before Mr Hedges appears in court again on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Behaviour ‘not tolerated’<\/p>\n

In a statement, AFP Detective Acting Superintendent Peter Brindal said threats to aviation security would not be tolerated.<\/p>\n

“Travelling through airports should be a safe experience for passengers, staff and airline crew alike,” he said.<\/p>\n

“The AFP will continue to work closely with airline partners to deal with any behaviour that interferes with aviation security.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Victorian man who allegedly threatened to “blow up” Perth Airport’s main international terminal, forcing its evacuation and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":625525,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[303060,64,63,1348,48,17724,44,46,172127,303062,303061,303063,17726,17725,86,1158,302050,45],"class_list":{"0":"post-625524","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-australia","8":"tag-airport-bomb-threat","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-breaking-news","12":"tag-crime","13":"tag-emergency-services","14":"tag-news","15":"tag-perth","16":"tag-perth-airport","17":"tag-perth-airport-blow-up","18":"tag-perth-airport-evacuation","19":"tag-perth-airport-security","20":"tag-perth-breaking-news","21":"tag-perth-emergency","22":"tag-perth-news","23":"tag-police","24":"tag-suspicious-package","25":"tag-wa-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/625524","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=625524"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/625524\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/625525"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=625524"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=625524"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=625524"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}