French man appears in court on three air rage charges

A 55-year-old French man is to plead guilty to all air rage related charges that resulted in a transatlantic flight diverting to Shannon on Monday.

At Ennis District Court yesterday, French national, Som Chanh (above) appeared in relation to the three charges following his arrest off the Paris to Montreal Air Transat flight TSC-711 in Shannon.

Mr Chanh is the second air rage case to come before Ennis District Court this year, following the conviction last month of Jenny Lauren, niece of US billionaire Ralph Lauren.

The pilot diverted the Airbus A330-200, with over 300 passengers on board, when it was south of Ireland with the aircraft landing at Shannon at 10.23am.

The flight was able to continue its journey after the passenger’s baggage had been removed from the aircraft, in accordance with security procedures.

Solicitor for the accused, Stiofan Fitzpatrick told Judge Patrick Durcan there was a plea of guilty to all charges.

However, Judge Durcan said he would not be able to deal with the case immediately as it was a day set aside in court to deal with traffic cases.

Mr Fitzpatrick then applied for bail for his client and Garda O'Riordan said the Garda already had €1,050 and a passport from Mr Chanh.

The conditions require a bond of €1,000 and the surrender of the passport, for the accused to stay in Ennis last night and to appear before Ennis District Court today.