Passenger ‘put holiday jet at risk’, court told

A HOLIDAYMAKER put passengers’ lives at risk by pulling the plastic cover off an emergency door as a plane was taking off, a court heard yesterday.

Henry Kelly, 53, is accused of causing the damage as the EasyJet flight was about fly to Alicante from Glasgow last June.

Prosecutors at Paisley Sheriff Court claim he acted in a manner likely to endanger the aircraft or anyone within the plane by ripping off the plastic cover and creating a risk the door could open.

If the door had opened, a slide would have deployed – with potentially catastrophic consequences for those on board and staff on the ground – the plane’s pilot, Hugh Shields, said.

Captain Shields said: ‘We were entering the runway to take off and a warning initiated in the flight deck to advise us that a door was open in the aircraft.

‘I stopped the aeroplane on the runway and consulted with my colleague. We needed to see if it was a genuine emergency or not.

‘I had no way of knowing if members of the public had spotted a fire and decided to leave the aircraft. When you are on the runway it is regarded as being a critical stage of the flight.’

Had the panel been ripped off later it could have had more severe consequences, he said. ‘Beyond a certain speed you can’t stop because you’ll go into the Clyde or the M8,’ he said.

Air Traffic Control asked him to clear the runway and he decided to take the plane back to where the passengers had boarded.

Captain Shields said the damage was to one of the emergency doors on the Airbus vessel he was piloting.

There was a lever underneath the plastic cover that Kelly removed which, if pulled, would have caused the door to blow and an emergency slide to deploy.

Kelly, of Bishopbriggs, Dunbartonshire, denies acting recklessly or negligently.

The trial was adjourned until next month.