Air-rage man gets of with a small fine

NAMIBIA’S Civil Aviation Offences Act was criticised in Windhoek’s Katutura Magistrate’s Court on Friday after magistrate Leah Shaanika was restricted to fining German national Uwe Bartsch N$1 000 for his unruly behaviour on board an Air Namibia flight last Monday night.

Under the act, the maximum sentence in such a case is a N$1 000 fine, three months in prison, or both. The court found Bartsch guilty of causing a nuisance, behaving disorderly, and being intoxicated on board the connect flight from Frankfurt to Windhoek.He had been en route to Cape Town, where he is about to get married, Bartsch told the court on Friday.”We are bound by the four walls of the law,” the prosecution told the Magistrate before sentencing.”We cannot go beyond that.”Before noting this, prosecutor Lino Dingo said that Bartsch’s offence was considered very serious, especially in the post-September 11 2001 era, where flight safety has become a major issue internationally.”Worship, in my quick research I’ve noted that many countries have changed their laws regarding flight safety, including the United States of America, the United Kingdom and Germany, where the accused is from,” Dingo stated, saying that in these countries an accused could face several years behind bars for similar acts.During testimony on Thursday, Air Namibia cabin attendant Marissa Jonach said Bartsch had been so out of control that they feared he might try to open the aircraft doors, and that on one occasion he mentioned a bomb, and said that he did not fear dying.”We are still lagging behind,” the prosecutor told the Magistrate about Namibia’s air-safety legislature, saying that the act had last been amended in 1992, before which an accused was fined only R100.Magistrate Shaanika agreed with the prosecution, saying that lawmakers in Namibia need to start amending outdated laws before being necessitated to do so by circumstances.The court nonetheless took in consideration the fact that Bartsch was on his way to Cape Town to get married, and imposed a fine of N$1 000 or three months in prison.Bartsch paid the fine.At the start of the trial Bartsch pleaded guilty, but because of his insistence that he could not remember anything that happened, his plea was changed to not guilty.He testified that he took pills given to him by a nurse friend in Germany, along with a drink of vodka and Coca-Cola not served on the plane, to overcome his fear of flying.After that he blacked out, he claimed.It was during this period that he apparently cornered a flight crewmember, shoved a passenger, and continually harassed others.At one point he apparently crawled from his seat, and at another grabbed a young boy’s food from his plate and ate it.All this resulted in him being strapped to his seat with restraining cuffs on more than one occasion.He broke free every time, until finally being held down by 10 male passengers while the female flight crew used their pantyhose to tie him up.Air Namibia staff testified that they had two options – either performing an emergency landing, or asking passengers to help control Bartsch for the remainder of the flight.The Magistrate ruled that, since Bartsch had willingly taken pills with which he was not familiar, and voluntarily drank alcohol he had brought onto the plane, even after being warned by a cabin attendant that this was not allowed, he had to a certain degree premeditated his conduct.The court found Bartsch guilty of causing a nuisance, behaving disorderly, and being intoxicated on board the connect flight from Frankfurt to Windhoek.He had been en route to Cape Town, where he is about to get married, Bartsch told the court on Friday.”We are bound by the four walls of the law,” the prosecution told the Magistrate before sentencing.”We cannot go beyond that.”Before noting this, prosecutor Lino Dingo said that Bartsch’s offence was considered very serious, especially in the post-September 11 2001 era, where flight safety has become a major issue internationally.”Worship, in my quick research I’ve noted that many countries have changed their laws regarding flight safety, including the United States of America, the United Kingdom and Germany, where the accused is from,” Dingo stated, saying that in these countries an accused could face several years behind bars for similar acts.During testimony on Thursday, Air Namibia cabin attendant Marissa Jonach said Bartsch had been so out of control that they feared he might try to open the aircraft doors, and that on one occasion he mentioned a bomb, and said that he did not fear dying.”We are still lagging behind,” the prosecutor told the Magistrate about Namibia’s air-safety legislature, saying that the act had last been amended in 1992, before which an accused was fined only R100.Magistrate Shaanika agreed with the prosecution, saying that lawmakers in Namibia need to start amending outdated laws before being necessitated to do so by circumstances.The court nonetheless took in consideration the fact that Bartsch was on his way to Cape Town to get married, and imposed a fine of N$1 000 or three months in prison.Bartsch paid the fine.At the start of the trial Bartsch pleaded guilty, but because of his insistence that he could not remember anything that happened, his plea was changed to not guilty.He testified that he took pills given to him by a nurse friend in Germany, along with a drink of vodka and Coca-Cola not served on the plane, to overcome his fear of flying.After that he blacked out, he claimed.It was during this period that he apparently cornered a flight crewmember, shoved a passenger, and continually harassed others.At one point he apparently crawled from his seat, and at another grabbed a young boy’s food from his plate and ate it.All this resulted in him being strapped to his seat with restraining cuffs on more than one occasion.He broke free every time, until finally being held down by 10 male passengers while the female flight crew used their pantyhose to tie him up.Air Namibia staff testified that they had two options – either performing an emergency landing, or asking passengers to help control Bartsch for the remainder of the flight.The Magistrate ruled that, since Bartsch had willingly taken pills with which he was not familiar, and voluntarily drank alcohol he had brought onto the plane, even after being warned by a cabin attendant that this was not allowed, he had to a certain degree premeditated his conduct.