A LIGHT aircraft rocked from side to side as it came in to land when a
drunken North Sea worker started a fight, a court was told yesterday.
Kevin Blackburn had drunk too much alcohol from the Short 330's free
bar on a flight from Aberdeen to Newcastle upon Tyne.
Blackburn, 25, of Coston Drive, South Shields, had helped himself to
double vodkas as he assisted stewardess Mrs Susan Turner to pour drinks
on the Gill Air flight last December, Bedlington Magistrates Court,
Northumberland, was told.
It was his first drinking session after completing two weeks on a rig
in the North Sea over Christmas. He swore when Mrs Turner closed the bar
as the aircraft approached Newcastle airport.
Mr Alan Hume, prosecuting, said other oil workers on the privately
hired, propeller-driven aircraft tried to calm the situation. He added:
''The defendant made an adverse comment to one of the male passengers
and a fight broke out.
''On that size of aircraft it caused some difficulties -- the fighting
caused it to rock as it was coming in to land.''
The aircraft's captain, Terrance Dixon, radioed the airport to alert
security guards about the trouble.
A total of six men were escorted to the airport's police office where
Blackburn again became abusive.
After being arrested, he told detectives: ''As soon as the fresh air
hit me it knocked me daft.''
Mr Philip Morris, defending, said: ''Taking men on a plane and giving
them virtually unlimited access to alcohol might be seen as a recipe for
disaster.''
The drink available was not an excuse for Blackburn, who deeply
regretted his actions.
Blackburn admitted being drunk on an aircraft and drunk and disorderly
at Newcastle airport. He was fined a total of #2000.
A charge that he endangered the safety of the aircraft and its
passengers was withdrawn.
A Gill Air spokesman yesterday said the company had banned Blackburn
from its flights for life. He added: ''We just can not tolerate or
condone that sort of conduct. It is evident that Mr Blackburn concealed
his drunkeness from our handling agents and cabin crew, otherwise he
would never have been allowed on board.''
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