Corby gives waiting crowds the slip with last minute plane switch
Schapelle Corby has arrived home in Australia as a free woman after giving the media slip this morning, after switching planes out of Bali at the last minute.
The 39-year-old, accompanied by her sister Mercedes, arrived on a Malindo Air flight that landed at 5.09am after being deported from Bali 12-and-a-half years after she was caught with 4.1kg of marijuana in her boogie board bag.
Corby was initially booked on Virgin flight VA46 - a photo of her boarding pass, seat 1A, was circulated on social media. But it was a decoy and she never boarded the flight, to the disappointment of photographers who missed the chance to snap her first moments of freedom.
Instead Corby travelled business class on a marginally earlier Malindo flight to Brisbane. Upon returning home, she left the airport via a non-public exit less than half an hour after her flight arrived.
Corby is yet to be sighted, with her security team taking media on a wild goose chase with a motorcade of black Mercedes vans, followed by the media, which left the airport but took separate routes.
One ended at the Sofitel Hotel in the city where it is believed Corby will be spending the night, while the other was stopped at the KFC store at Ormeau, en route to the Gold Coast. Corby was not seen in either.
Weekend Sunrise has heard reports one of the cars may have taken Corby down into the hotel's underground car park and potentially switched cars to evade the media, with many cars coming out of that hotel this morning.
Other vehicles from the initial convoy appear to be heading down to the Gold Coast, potentially towards Corby's family home in Loganlea, or her sister's home in Tugun.
By 6.30am, she had not shown up at her mother Rosleigh Rose's house at Loganlea, however, 7 News has seen police at the home.
Queensland Police said they had not provided an escort for the convoys.
After Corby had left the airport, a member of her security team read a statement on behalf of the family, asking for privacy but also thanking supporters.
"To all those in Australia and to all of those in Bali, who were there throughout the difficult journey, your support has not gone unnoticed," the statement said.
"To each and every one of you, you are appreciated."
The family said the focus was no on helping Schapelle adjust to life back in Australia.
"The priority of our focus will now be on healing and moving forward," the statement said.
"In the spirit of humility and in the spirit of dignity, we ask all parties to show respect for the family's privacy during this time."
Her security team also made a last-minute switch to put her on the Malindo Air flight.
She had been expected to travel on a Virgin flight that left around the same time. Up to 40 media had booked onto the Virgin flight.
Corby's return home comes 12 years after she was sentenced to 20 years in prison, where she served almost 10 years before being on parole for a further three years.
She flew out of Bali just after 10pm local time on Saturday after a chaotic final trip from her Kuta home to the parole office then to Denpasar Airport.
Wearing black sunglasses, a white shawl over her head and holding up a bag with the face of missing boy William Tyrrell, who disappeared from Kendall in NSW in 2014, Corby and Mercedes scurried into the back of a corrections vehicle surrounded by media
After signing the final paperwork, they left for the airport.
The convicted drug smuggler begins life back in Australia in the digital age, her Instagram page is already followed by more than 80,000 people just hours after she created it late last night.
