A Jetstar flight was grounded at Sydney Airport after an anxious flyer caused concern onboard, but the airline says there was "no security risk" after Australian Federal Police (AFP) became involved.
The JQ501 service departing for Melbourne was preparing for take-off when crew become concerned about the passenger's behaviour.
Initial reports said a fight had broken out onboard, but Jetstar refuted the claims.
A spokesperson for the airline said the AFP were requested by crew due to the passenger's "unusual" behaviour.
"Our crew noticed a passenger behaving unusually and requested AFP attendance," the spokesperson said.
"The aircraft returned to the gate and the passenger chose not to fly. We now understand the customer was a nervous flyer and was experiencing anxiety.
"We also understand the situation made some other people onboard feel uneasy and they also decided not to continue with their journey.
"As a result of this we had to delay the flight and apologise to customers for the inconvenience."
A passenger named Sharee told the Today programme on 9News that six passengers asked to leave the plane after the incident after feeling "a bit nervous".
"We were already on the runway and an announcement was made that due to operational issues we will have to return back to the gate and we did," she said.
"We saw a crew member talking to a passenger and the passenger, yelled out, 'This is ridiculous. There's a war going on in Palestine'.
"The crew member said to him, 'He's welcome to leave the flight' and he got up and was getting his bags to leave."
Though she said the experience was concerning, Sharee praised Jetstar staff for their handling of the incident.
"They were very open to answering everybody's questions," she said.
"We were told the original reason [why] we were turned back was another passenger was not happy with their seat.
"Crew members tried to explain to them that they could change seats after we took off but they insisted they want to leave the plane."
Passengers from the flight have since been re-booked onto Jetstar flights arriving in Melbourne today.
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