'Lessons to be learned' after AFP gun fired during Sydney Airport arrest
Australian Federal Police (AFP) officers were responding to reports of a man allegedly acting suspiciously inside the T2 domestic terminal about 6am on Wednesday morning.
It is alleged that when officers tried to speak with the man, he became verbally and physically aggressive.
A current and retired NSW police officer who were both in the area at the time also assisted with the incident.
During the arrest, an AFP firearm was discharged into a nearby cafe wall and oven.
No one was injured.
A 41-year-old man from Victoria has since been charged with obstructing and hindering a Commonwealth official, and creating a disturbance at an airport.
An internal review has been launched into how the gun, a short-barrelled rifle, was fired.
AFP acting commander Scott Raven said while he could not comment on the circumstances, he was grateful no one was injured.
"All our AFP officers are professional, highly trained and skilled, and as part of their duties at all our airports, we have a counterterrorism first response, and that includes carrying short-barrelled firearms," he said.
"When that firearm discharged, it was very low to the ground, and it was ultimately lodged only a metre away from where the firearm was discharged into an oven, into that cafe."
Security expert Neil Fergus, who is the chief executive officer of consultancy firm Intelligent Risks, has welcomed the review into how the gun was discharged.
Mr Fergus, who has advised the federal government on two major reviews of airport security, said it was possible the AFP may need to review its protocols.
"I'm not criticising the officers concerned, (but) there are always lessons to be learned from any of these incidents," he said.
"When the AFP are called by airport staff to deal with a matter like this, they are very well-prepared and trained to deal with it, but were their protocols and training sufficient in this case? That's going to be something for AFP professional standards to look at."
AFP officers began using short-barrelled rifles in major Australian airports in 2019 as part of beefed-up counterterrorism measures.
Mr Fergus said he was confident such firearms were necessary as AFP officers had to deal with "very challenging circumstances, virtually every day".
He pointed to a recent security breach at Avalon Airport in Victoria, in which a 17-year-old allegedly boarded a flight armed with a loaded shotgun, as another example of the "serious nature of airport security".
"The point is that the police have to be appropriately equipped to deal with all those sorts of contingencies," he said.
Mr Fergus said he hoped the findings from the internal review would be made public.
"I don't think they would be going into the operational detail of their preparedness and exercising, but there'll need to be some sort of statement made."
The 41-year-old man has been granted conditional bail and will face Sydney's Downing Centre Local Court on September 1.
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