Jockey gets jail term for inflight incident

[Vapor]

From Unison.ie

"Former Irish Champion Jockey Paul Carberry has been sentenced to two months in prison and fined €500 for causing a breach of the peace on a flight from Malaga to Dublin last year.
The 31-year-old, from Tara in Co Meath, appeared at Swods District Court today accused of setting fire to a friend's newspaper on the flight last October.

He was charged with using threatening, abusive or insulting behaviour contrary to the Air Navigation and Transport Act."

[Irish Steve]

RTE News are giving a little more detail.

http://www.rte.ie/sport/2006/0524/carberryp.html

Hopefully the more useful outcome of this will be that the individual concerned will now find it a LOT more difficult to get passage on scheduled flights, as he has demonstrated that he cannot be relied on to act in a safe and responsible manner. I know I would prefer not to be sharing an aircraft with people like this.

[Basil]

As apprentice engineers we often had an oily rag stuck in back pocket of overalls. This occasionally proved too much of a temptation for someone with a box of matches and a warped sense of humour :ooh: - but in an aeroplane? The lad really hadn't thought it through. (wouldn't be a great idea in the stable either - all that hay & straw)

[jamesiek]

Come on guys,

He's a professional sportsman, what a complete waste of taxpayers money to put him in jail for a minor incident like this.

On the other hand, the fine was ridiculously small, a large fine/charitable donation and maybe a bit of community service would be a much more appropriate punishment.

Regards,
J

[Getoutofmygalley]

what a complete waste of taxpayers money to put him in jail for a minor incident like this

Excuse me but do you work on aircraft? This is not a minor incident, this **** deserves to be put in prison for starting a fire on an aircraft. Inflight fires are the thing that I fear the most about working on an aircraft, purely because it takes so little time for them to get out of hand, and when you are in that alluminium tube at a great height, there is nothing you can do when they are out of control!

He set light to a newspaper, the burning embers from the newspaper could have set light to a seat cushion - under that seat cushion could have been a bag of duty free alcohol..... need I continue? :*

[Gordon17]

Jamesiek

Not sure I understand your point - why does the fact that he is a professional sportsman make it pointless putting him in jail?

It punishes him by spoiling his career, and also draws attention to the fact that people can be jailed for such stupid acts.

And I don't agree that starting a fire on an aircraft at 12,000 feet is a minor incident.

[jamesiek]

No,

What i meant is that the fine is soo small given his earnings as a professional sportsman.....surely a really high fine and community service would be much more beneficial to all concerned!

Putting him in jail costs taxpayers money and should be reserved for those who are likley to offend again!

Regards,
J

[radeng]

Being a liberal, I'd fine him about 20,000 euro AND give him about 5 years inside. With no time off for good behaviour.

[corsair]

Apparently he has flown Aer Lingus several times since the incident. Obviously without pulling a stunt like that again. From my sources in the horsey world he's apparently a bit of a joker and likes drink or two or ten. Nevertheless he's popular and good at this job.

Pity he did something so stupid in a airliner. Sometimes I think it's hard for some people to realise just how risky fire is in an aircraft. He knows now. I doubt if he'll do gaol time though.