DRUNK IN PLANE

Evening Post, Volume CXXV, Issue 145, 22 June 1938, Page 12

DRUNK IN PLANE

PASSENGER CHARGED

COURT'S SERIOUS VIEW

A FINE OF £5

"~ (By Telegraph—Press Association.) NELSON, This Day,

What was probably the first case under the Air Navigation Act of a passenger being drunk in an aeroplane was before the Magistrate's Court this morning when a passenger on a Cook Strait Airways machine was fined £5 in default seven days' imprisonment. The charge was that being a passenger in,a Cbok Strait Airways aeroplane he was in a state of intoxication in an aircraft. He was also charged with being drunk in a public .place, and on this charge he was convicted and discharged.

Senior-Sergeant Petersen said that the defendant joined the aeroplane at Greymouth and on the way up he was seen drinking from a flask of whisky. On arrival at Stoke he was in a state of drunkenness.

The offence was regarded seriously and the defendant was liable to six months' imprisonment or a fine of £200 or both. The Magistrate said he believed that the carrying of liquor in aeroplanes was prohibited.

The Senior-Sergeant pointed out that it might have caused a serious accident.

The defendant said that he was sober when he joined the aeroplane.

The Magistrate remarked that that was worse. If he had been drunk before he would not have been allowed on the machine.

The defendant was so drunk that he had to be assisted out of the plane, said the Senior-Sergeant.

The Magistrate said he thought it was a case for gaol, but he decided to impose a fine as stated.