Police turn to Thailand in murder hunt

Victoria Police have defended their actions in allowing two murder suspects to flee
Australia on the weekend.
Australian airline Jetstar admitted on Tuesday it was told by police a suspect in
the stabbing murder of Melbourne man Luke Mitchell was on a flight from Melbourne to
Thailand.
Jetstar spokesman Simon Westaway said the plane was "well out of Australian
airspace" and it was his understanding no arrest warrants had been issued at that
point.
Police spokeswoman Sergeant Carla Coslovich said police were powerless to stop the
two men fleeing the country as they did not have arrest warrants for them.
"Victoria Police is powerless to do anything without warrants, such as turning the
plane around," she told AAP.
"Otherwise we would have contacted the federal police."
Police will turn to Thai authorities for help to nab the men accused of the murder
of 29-year-old Mitchell after he'd helped break up a brawl outside a Melbourne
nightclub early on Sunday morning.
Three suspects in the death dumped their car and fled to Thailand, Victorian police
confirmed.
Fairfax Radio reported that the Australian Federal Police were contacted and the
flight was five hours into its journey to Bangkok when Jetstar's operations centre
was told someone of interest to police was on board.
Federal police alerted the plane, which was still in Australian airspace, but the
decision was made not to turn it around because of safety fears, it reported.