Briton Pleads Not Guilty After Drunken Bomb Threat

DUBAI (AFP) — A Briton who sparked a bomb alert on an Emirates flight from Manchester to Dubai in July while he was drunk told a court in the Gulf emirate that he was joking, newspapers reported on Thursday.

"It was a joke," Mark Winter, 37, told the court on Wednesday, as he pleaded not guilty to attacking a civilian airliner, the papers said.

Winter, who triggered panic by claiming he had a bomb that would explode in seven minutes, admitted he had been drinking, the papers said.

Emirates airline said on July 9 that a drunken Briton sparked the bomb alert as its flight from England landed in Dubai.

An official for the Dubai carrier said the passenger had an argument with one of the crew and then claimed a bomb was on the aircraft, which was later searched and no explosives found.

A prosecution spokesman said last month that Winter would be tried on charges of assaulting the aircraft and passengers as well as drunkenness.

"I was drunk. I was unaware of what I was doing ... I did not assault the flight attendant. I did not assault the passengers but I was trying to defend myself," the English-language daily Khaleej Times quoted Winter as telling the court.

The court will issue its verdict on September 17, the newspaper added.

Another Drunk Passenger Incident - August 14, 2008

From SkyNews:

A flight between Ireland and Crete have been diverted and five people removed by police after a fight broke out on board.

One eyewitness who was on the plane when it was forced to make an unscheduled landing in Venice last night said a man began smashing overhead compartments.

One of the 167 passengers on the Futura Gael flight 2815 from Dublin to Heraklion, Aoife O'Reilly, from Dublin, said those responsible had been drinking.

"We were up in the air and two guys - who were surprisingly a lot older than us - started fights," she said.

"Then we had to be redirected to Venice for a couple of hours. The police came on and had to get them off.

"They had a couple of drinks on them, they were extremely aggressive. One of the guys half-way through the flight stood up and started smashing the overhead compartments."

Italian border police based at Marco Polo airport in Venice said the men were all Irish and aged between 25 and 30.

They were not arrested but put on a plane back to Ireland, the authorities said.

Dublin-based Futura Gael, which runs charter flights to holiday destinations, apologised to passengers who were delayed by several hours.
"The incident occurred in Italian airspace at approximately 10pm Irish time, where a number of passengers were involved in an incident on board," said a spokesman.

"The captain then made the decision, for the safety of all on board, to divert to Venice, where the aircraft was met by members of the Italian police.
"Five people were removed from the aircraft by Italian police and the remaining passengers continued their flight approximately two hours later and have arrived safely in Heraklion."

The airline said it had launched its own internal investigation.