DRUNK IN A PLANE

Evening Star, Issue 22990, 22 June 1938, Page 12

DRUNK IN A PLANE

PASSENGER FINED £S OFFENCE UNDER AIN NAVIGATION ACT [Pee United Press Association.] NELSON, June 22. 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 the Cook Strait Airways was fined £5, in default seven days’ imprisonment. The charge ■was that,' being a passenger in a Cook Strait Airways plane, 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 ho was convicted and discharged. Senior-sergeant Petersen said that the defendant joined the aeroplane at Greymoutb, 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 itho defendant was liable to six months’ imprisonment or a fine of £2OO, or both. The Magistrate said he believed the carrying of liquor in planes was prohibited. The Senior Sergeant pointed out that it might have caused a serious accident. The defendant said he was sober when he went on the plane. The Magistrate remarked that that was worse; if he had been drunk before he would not have been allowed on. The defendant was so drunk that he had to bo assisted out of the plane, said the senior sergeant. The Magistrate said he thought it was a case for gaol, but he had decided to impose a fine.