Passengers aboard Malaysia Airlines flight 128 from Melbourne to Kuala Lumpur have tackled a passenger who tried to enter the cockpit just after take-off last night.

The economy class passenger jumped up just after take-off and allegedly claimed he had a bomb.

According to Aviation Herald the Malaysia Airlines Airbus A330-300, registration 9M-MTI was climbing out of Melbourne’s runway 16 when the crew stopped the climb at about 6500ft reporting a passenger had tried to enter the cockpit.

The crew returned to Melbourne and performed an overweight landing about 15 minutes after departure and was located to a remote part of the airport.

Australian Federal Police boarded the plane to check that there was no bomb.

Police do not believe the bomb threat was terror related.

The 25-year-old Sri Lankan national faces two charges against the Crimes Aviation Act and is due to appear in the Melbourne Magistrate’s Court this afternoon.

Police understand he has a history of mental illness.

Camera Icon Armed officers boarded the Malaysia Airlines plane after it returned to Melbourne. Credit: Andrew Leoncelli

Supt Tony Langdon, from NW Metro, said the “device” the man was allegedly holding was “obviously not an explosive device” but would not go into detail.

The Malaysian Government said the device “was not a bomb but a powerbank"”.

Former Melbourne AFL footballer Andrew Leoncelli, who was on the flight, told 3AW how he tried to stop the alleged bomber.

“We literally took off, 10 minutes into the take-off, and I was sitting in business class 4A seat, and I could hear this idiot saying that he wanted to go in and see the pilot,” he said.

“The staff were saying ‘Sit back down sir, sit back down sir’. He goes, ‘No, I’m not going to sit back down — I’m going to blow the plane up’.” he said.

“The staff screamed out ‘I need some help, I need some help’. So I jumped up, undid my buckle, and approached him.

“I said, ‘Mate, what are you effing doing? And he said ‘I’m going to blow the f**king plane up, I’m going to blow the f**king plane up. And I was going, ‘Oh my God, he’s f**king insane’.

"So, I took a step back. And I said to my friend, ‘Mate this guy’s serious. We’d better f**king do something’.

“So, I approached him and he ran down the side and then he ended up going down the back of the plane.

“Then two lads grabbed him and disarmed him and bashed the crap out of him and put hog ties on him and took the giant black thing out of his hand.”

Camera Icon Former AFL player Andrew Leoncelli was on the flight Credit: Trevor Collens

Leoncelli says the device in the man’s hand was “the size of a watermelon”.

“It was huge, it was black and it had two black antennaes coming off it, but it also looked like an iPhone jack. So it could have been just a beatbox thing,” he said. “I think the guy was just an idiot.”

Malaysia Airlines reported about three hours after landing: “MH128, which had departed Melbourne Airport at 11.11pm scheduled to arrive Kuala Lumpur at 5.28am on 1 June, made a turn back to Melbourne after the operating Captain was alerted by a cabin crew of a passenger attempting to enter the cockpit.

“Malaysia Airlines would like to stress that at no point was the aircraft ‘hijacked’. The passenger was apprehended by security forces. The passengers have disembarked the aircraft in the meantime and have been taken to hotels.”