A German football fan who lost his temper with cabin crew on an SA Express passenger flight to Durban, prompting them to advise the pilot to keep his cockpit door locked, received a three-month suspended sentence on Saturday.
‘You were fortunate you were not on an American plane,” Port Elizabeth magistrate Peter Campbell told Jorg Mardos, after finding the 37-year-old insurance clerk guilty of contravening a section of the Civil Aviation Act.
Earlier, the special World Cup court had heard how Mardos “lost it” while on a flight from Port Elizabeth to Durban last Wednesday, after hearing that air traffic problems at their destination had forced the plane to turn back, and realising he would miss his team’s game against Spain.
Called by the state as witnesses, cabin attendants Pier Hemy and Ziyanda Gaxela told how Mardos had pushed and shoved them, screamed and sworn, and refused repeated commands to return to his seat.
They said other passengers on the plane, a 50-seater Canadair Regional Jet-200, had been involved in attempts to quiet Mardos down.
‘We have trouble’
Gaxela said that at one point she had moved to stand in front of the cockpit door because she feared Mardos would try to enter. Hemy said he had moved a food trolley in front of the door, and alerted the pilot via intercom not to unlock it.
‘Keep your cockpit door locked — we have trouble,” he told pilot Albert van der Merwe, who immediately contacted ground control and requested priority clearance to land at Port Elizabeth Airport.
Van der Merwe, who was also called as a witness, told the court several passengers had also been alarmed by the incident, and were offered trauma counselling after the flight.
On landing at Port Elizabeth, the plane was met by about 40 security officials. Mardos was removed from the aircraft and arrested.
Prosecutor Thobile Jikela called for Mardos to receive a fine and a prison sentence, saying a suspended sentence would ‘send a wrong message”.
A R10 000 fine and four-months imprisonment would be appropriate, he said.
‘Since 9/11, the future of aviation has changed,” he noted.
Mardos’ lawyer, Theuns Roelofse, told the court his client had been very frustrated about missing the match and had not had any intention of entering the cockpit.
He said Mardos had spent R34 500 on tickets for 13 people, who had been waiting in Durban to collect them.
Roelofse asked the court to take his client’s frustration into account when passing sentence, as well as the loss he had incurred.
Campbell said that while he understood Mardos’ frustration, his reaction to the plane not landing in Durban had been completely uncalled for.
‘What you did was unacceptable. It could have led to a worse situation. You should never have acted like that,” he told him.
However, the offence committed was a “lesser serious” one in terms of the Civil Aviation Act. Campbell said he would not impose a fine.
‘You’ve lost so much already, I’m not going to add to your burden,” he told Mardos.
He sentenced the German — who, according to his lawyer, had not missed one of his national side’s matches since 1990 — to three months imprisonment, suspended for one year. – Sapa