ON QANTAS Flight 430, tattooed men from two warring bike gangs exchanged threats mid-flight. It became so heated between the Hells Angels and the Comanchero - one group sitting behind the other - that some of them began sending text messages to mates on the ground, calling back-up to Sydney Airport.
By the time they landed at Sydney at 1.30pm on Sunday, the cavalry had arrived with knives and knuckle dusters. In the plane, the rival bikies pushed and shoved as they tried to disembark, and one cried: "Come on, boys, let's go, let's go".
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VIDEO: One person is dead following Sunday's attack inside the domestic terminal at Sydney Airport. Police believe the violence is gang-related and four arrests have been made.
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VIDEO: Rudd offers response to bikie violence
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Within minutes, there would be bloodshed in the arrivals hall - enough to rock the nation's motorcycle gangs and to spur politicians into action, possibly to rewrite the laws governing freedom of association.
Ironically, one of the Hells Angels on the flight, the club's Guildford chapter president, Derek Wainohu, has been campaigning against such draconian laws. On Sunday he was returning to Sydney with a fellow Hells Angel, Peter Zervas, and his brother, 29-year-old Anthony Zervas, according to one source, from a meeting to discuss ways to end the bikie war.
When this trio emerged from the sky bridge to Terminal 3, they were confronted near gate five by the Comanchero from the same flight. They traded abuse and threats and pushed and shoved each other, witnesses told the Herald.
By now, the Comanchero numbers had been bolstered by four or so friends who had come to greet them, having passed through a metal detector outside the arrivals hall, according to a passenger from QF430. Another two waited in the hall.
The Hells Angels had friends waiting outside, too, including at least one member of the Bandidos. This group walked towards gate two and through a glass door into the arrivals hall. The Comanchero took a separate door. Within a minute or two, Anthony Zervas - apparently not a member of any bike gang - would be dead.
But first, some critical background on this conflict. On February 4, an explosion tore apart the facade of the Hells Angels City Crew clubhouse at Petersham. Police suspected Notorious, a group commonly misnamed as a bikie gang. Most of its members, while they compete for turf with bike gangs over the amphetamine trade, are not bikies in the traditional sense. They rarely ride bikes and travel in black-tinted luxury four-wheel-drives. But criminal sources say the bombing culprits were not from Notorious but the Comanchero.
Four days later, four men wearing Hells Angels colours kneecapped a 33-year-old man near a Christian motorcycle show at Silverwater. That man, sources say, was a Comanchero.
These were just two of dozens of violent attacks involving bikies in Sydney in the past year. Not all are related but all point to a growing willingness to shed blood, even when children are present. On Monday morning last week, a bullet that struck the Auburn house of Mahmoud Dib, a senior Bandido, came close to striking his four-year-old son.
Back at the airport, the rival groups entered the arrivals hall via two glass doors, perhaps 80 metres apart. And then there was a charge to the centre of the vast hall. A fierce brawl erupted inside the security barrier, then moved past it "like one big rolling ball of mayhem" towards the terminal's doors, one witness said.
As the melee passed the security point, kicking and punching, about five of the men picked up steel posts and swung them like bats and swords. Horrified passengers ducked for cover. Others came into heavy contact with the brawlers. Many watched as Anthony Zervas was bashed and kicked to the ground.
A police statement tendered to court said: "One of these males was observed to strike the male on the ground to the head with a metal pole using significant force, at which time a 'loud crunching sound' was heard. Blood was seen to flow from the head of the male on the ground …"
The brawlers broke up and fled through the terminal's main doors. Four leapt into a taxi. Others ran for the car park.
By some accounts, the brawl was over in 30 seconds, but Mr Zervas was dead. Passengers, including nurses, tried in vain to help him while his brother pleaded: "Hang on, Tone."
Police soon arrested the four Comanchero bikies in the taxi at Brighton-le-Sands. Peter Zervas was arrested and taken to Maroubra Police Station but was released without charge later in the night. Derek Wainohu was not arrested.
The Comanchero bikies' lawyer, Lesly Rundle, told the Herald: "There was an issue or words exchanged after certain persons got off the flight. There was then a physical altercation and threats were made towards [one of the Comanchero]."
From her understanding, airport security at no stage intervened to stop the fight.
"[Then] new people turned up, which was members or people belonging to the Hells Angels side," Ms Rundle said.
She said she had been told that Anthony Zervas had pulled two knives on his attackers.
She said the Angels had delivered threats and provoked the fight.
"They were waiting for our blokes at the [gate]," she said.
A source close to the Hells Angels said the attack bolstered opinion in the bikie community that the Comanchero and Notorious were "rogue groups".
"They are out of control," he said. "They have a very strong Lebanese presence. They have a very strong leaning towards a much more radical approach."
This approach was upsetting other clubs as the Government considered legislation to outlaw clubs, as South Australia has already done.
"Derek [Wainohu] is the driving force to try and get something in NSW so when there's a problem or disagreement in clubs it's resolved essentially around a boardroom table … [and] none of this caper seen in Sydney. But what we are facing is a small minority of clubs leaning towards violence."
The bikie scene has been in flux since Notorious formed in 2007. The new club has demonstrated a violent streak that has alarmed traditional clubs.
As a result, other gangs have responded in kind. In October last year, men believed to be associated with the Comanchero gang exploded a bomb under the Notorious president's car at Lane Cove.
Notorious is believed to be associated with a powerful Sydney crime family that controls valuable drug turf in the inner city. The drug trade is believed to be behind much of the escalating violence.
The warring gangs might take note of one of Notorious's mottos: "Only the dead see the end of war."
