An oil worker who was discharged from the Army after failing a drugs test has been fined over a booze-fuelled rampage at Aberdeen International Airport.
Nathan Jackson, who served in Iraq as a lance corporal with the Fusiliers before being caught out over cocaine use, appeared at Aberdeen Sheriff Court to be sentenced over the airport escapade.
The 33-year-old had previously pled guilty to entering an aircraft while drunk, but yesterday was allowed to withdraw that plea, and a not guilty plea was accepted after defence agent Mike Monro told the court airport staff had initially given Jackson and a colleague the green light to board the plane.
Mr Monro said his client had just returned from a spell offshore and was drinking at the airport with a colleague before they missed their flight and had to rebook on a later one.
When they got to the gate they were allowed to board but flight crew later decided they were too drunk and removed them from the flight.
Mr Monro said: “By this time they’re more than a little frustrated.
“He’s now being taken off the plane and walking through the public area ranting and raving.
“He’s not violent to any member of staff but he takes his temper out on the information board by smashing it.”
Mr Monro added his client was “suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder because he was formerly a lance corporal in the Fusiliers and fought in Iraq”.
However, he began using cocaine around 2006 and “failed a drugs test and got discharged”.
Jackson, of Pennyfine Court, North Shields, previously pled guilty to maliciously destroying a flight information screen and two charges of behaving in a threatening or abusive manner over the incident, which happened on August 13.
Sheriff Andrew Miller handed Jackson a fine of £700 and ordered him to pay the airport £959 in compensation for the damaged screen.
Depute fiscal Anna Chisholm previously told the court that when police arrived, Jackson was taken to cells at the airport, where he kicked and headbutted the cell door.
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