A hoax note written by Matthew Carney on a plane from Dubai, caused inbound emergency services to be scrambled and 164 passengers and 18 crew to be detained for 10 hours while counter terrorist police searched the plane and took statements.
“He apologizes wholeheartedly and sincerely to all those individuals who were even the slightest bit inconvenienced,” his lawyer, Andel Singh, told Lewes Crown Court.
Many passengers are now afraid to fly.
The hoax cost the airline more than £53,000 in rearranging flights.
Carney said he had suffered a mental breakdown after working back-to-back shifts and could not explain what made him write the note.
Carney’s family from Australian were with him in court.
He pleaded guilty to “inducing a false belief that an object” was “liable to explode” on the Emirates flight EK-011.
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