A man was charged and fined after urinating into a cup on an Air New Zealand flight in December last year.
The incident took place on an Air NZ flight to Sydney Airport from Auckland on December 30.
An Australian Federal Police (AFP) spokesperson told 1News that officers removed the 53-year-old from the plane after receiving reports that he had urinated into a cup while still in his seat.
Following the incident, the man was charged with acting in an offensive or disorderly manner affecting safety — contrary to section 91.525(4) of the Civil Aviation Safety Regulations 1998.
On February 21, he appeared in the Downing Centre Local Court and was fined AUD$600 (NZ$655).
Air NZ’s chief operational integrity and safety officer David Morgan told 1News he couldn’t comment on the specific incident but behaviour like this would normally lead to a passenger being removed from the flight.
He said: “Our normal process would be to call the local law enforcement agencies and do our own internal investigations.
“Unless there were exceptional circumstances, this sort of abhorrent behaviour would lead to the passenger being banned.”
Morgan said Air NZ issues between five to 10 ban letters each month for “a range of disruptive and unacceptable behaviours, repeated failure to follow crew instructions and intoxication”.
“We will not stand for abhorrent behaviour that impacts other customers and our staff. It’s frustrating for us to have to deal with behaviour like this from a small number of people when most of our passengers are fantastic.”
He also apologised to the passengers who had to put up with the man's behaviour “and would like to reassure our customers we take issues like this seriously”.
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