Magistrate slams Qantas over drunken passenger

A magistrate has slammed Qantas for letting an “out of control drunkard” onto a Perth-bound aeroplane where he started a fight, called a woman a bitch, and threatened to kill another passenger.

Perth Magistrate Paul Heaney heard yesterday that on October 27 last year Aaron Dean Monk, 38, boarded QF793 while drunk.

Monk had just finished a night shift as a chef working for catering company Spotless on a Northern Territory oil rig, and was flying home to Western Australia.

Commonwealth Prosecutor Justin Lilleyman told Mr Heaney that once on board, Monk began to be “disruptive” and use “foul and offensive language” – including the F-word.

When a female passenger sitting in front of Monk told him to pipe down, the drunk man called her a “stupid bitch”.

Mr Lilleyman said flight attendants repeatedly told Monk to lower his voice, but the hubbub continued throughout the flight.

As the plane taxied to the Perth terminal, a male passenger told Monk to “stop acting like an idiot”.

In response, Monk asked the man “do you want to have a go?”, and a fight broke out on board the moving aircraft.

The two were eventually separated, but not before Monk told his combatant: “you are a dead man”.

Yesterday, Monk pleaded guilty to one Federal count of behaving in an offensive and disorderly manner.

Magistrate Heaney expressed disgust with Qantas after Monk’s defence lawyer Andrew Monisse revealed the airline had allowed his client to board after he’d downed “six or seven pints before the flight”.

Mr Monisse said Monk was then served a beer and a wine on the flight, before the airline finally refused to stop serving him alcohol.

“So why did Qantas let him on the plane?” Magistrate Heaney said.

“Where’s Qantas’s duty of care to other passengers … if they let drunks on the plane?”

“They’ve got to show a bit of courage, these airlines.”

In handing down a $1500 fine, and ordering Monk pay costs of $150, Mr Heaney described the defendant as an “out of control drunkard”.

Source: news.com.au