This article is from page 11 of the 2009-05-19 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 11 JPG
THE behaviour of a business class passenger on board a flight forced the aircraft to divert to Shannon air- port on Friday evening.
The 46-year-old passenger, a ga- rage owner in Germany, was travel- ling on board the Condor Airlines flight between Frankfurt and the Dominican Republic when the pilot took the decision to divert to Shan- non after other passengers and cabin crew were verbally abused.
Arising out of the incident, Rainer Wainhart with an address in Munich was brought before a special sitting of Ennis District Court on Friday night.
He was charged with being intoxi- cated and engaging in threatening, insulting or abusive behaviour on board the aircraft.
Inspector John Galvin, prosecuting, said the cabin crew felt it was safer to land, after the passenger made a total nuisance of himself, having had too much to drink.
Garda Kevin Blehein told the court that the defendant had consumed al- cohol and became abusive towards cabin crew and other passengers. “He attempted to stroke a cabin crew member on the arm, which the cabin crew found offensive,” said the ee N Ker
He said the accused pestered cabin crew for alcohol and other passen- gers in his vicinity requested that he not be served any more alcohol.
“He became extremely un co-op- erative and demanded alcohol. He was refused due to his intoxication,” he added.
Defending solicitor Tara Godfrey said her client was travelling from his native Germany to the Domin1- can Republic, where he was to join
his girlfriend on holidays. The ac- cused, she said, owns a car dealer- ship in Germany and was travelling on business class.
‘He accepts that he drank too much. He wanted to speak to the people beside him. They were very snobby. They didn’t want to talk to him. He felt offended by this,” said Ms Godfrey.
However, she said the defendant was denying that he was “in any way threatening” and said he has no pre- vious convictions in his native coun- try.
The court was told the accused had two small glasses of wine prior to the flight and had another three or four during the flight. These affected him, as he doesn’t normally drink much.
Judge Joseph Mangan imposed a fine of €100 on one of the charges and took the other into account.