INTOXICATION IN PLANE

Press, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 27213, 3 December 1953, Page 11

INTOXICATION IN PLANE

Passenger Ordered To Pay £219

(Rec. 8 p.m.) LONDON, Dec. 2. The chairman of the Anglo-Con-tinental Aircraft Company, Charles Silvertop, was ordered by a Court at Newcastle-on-Tyne, to pay fines and costs totalling £219 for his behaviour over the Irish Sea in an aircraft in which he was the sole passenger. He was found guilty of being intoxicated and committing an act likely to imperil tl)e safety of the aircraft by interfering with the pilot. Silvertop told the Court he wanted the pilot to fly low and circle the steamer Princess Margaret in which he had arranged for his wife and two of his five daughters to travel from Larne to Stranraer. “While the captain is always the captain of his plane, I regarded myself as the admiral and I was planning the modus operandi,” said Silvertop. “I wanted the pilot to go down to the ship and I thought it reasonable to ask him to circle it. I particularly wanted the children to be able to say ‘There’s daddy.’ ” He leaned forward to tell the pilot what to do and he did not intend to exert any pressure, he said. “The Rapide Was noisy and it was difficult to make myself understood to Captain Cairns, the captain of the plane,” he continued. “I appreciate that Captain Cairns was anxious to get home as night was falling. I never intended to use any force on him. I think Cairns acted perfectly properly. He might have thought I was a dangerous drunk. I think he behaved in an exemplary way, but he misunderstood the whole situation. “I am rather apt to get annoyed if people do not do what I want them to do,” Silvertop said. He had two whiskies while waiting for the plane in Belfast, and he denied that he was under the influence of drink.

Pilot’s Evidence The pilot said Silvertop got up from his seat when they flew over the steamer. “He gripped my shoulder with his left hand and my right wrist with his right hand, and said, ‘Let’s go down and have some fun.’ ” Cairns decided to return to Belfast. An air hostess said that she and the pilot formed the crew of the plane. She was satisfied that Silvertop, when he boarded the aircraft, was not intoxicated. but he had a bottle of gin in his pocket and might have taken a drink from it on the flight. The Magistrates said the charges were unusually grave, and they were treating Silvertop leniently. The maximum penalty was £2OO, or six months in gaol on each of the charges