Plane passenger to pay €2,500 for 'sick' ebola joke
An Italian businessman is to pay €2,500 (approximately £2,000) to charity after making a 'sick joke' about Ebola on a Dublin-bound flight on Thursday.
Roberto Binaschi, who was visiting Ireland from Milan for a business conference, was reportedly joking with his daughter when he wrote "Attenzione Ebola" on a drinking cup during the Aer Lingus flight.
According to the BBC, the court heard how Binaschi's daughter had ordered a coffee and he took a sip from the cup first. She told him his germs were on the coffee cup and as a joke he wrote "Attenzione Ebola" on the lid.
A flight attendant found the cup and the captain alerted the Dublin Airport Authority, which put emergency procedures into place.
Upon landing, the plane carrying 142 passengers, was sealed off for over an hour while medical tests were carried out. No trace of the virus was found on board.
But Mr Binaschi, 56, and two women, aged 51 and 23, were arrested and taken to Ballymun Garda station.
The two women were released but Mr Binaschi, from Corso Argentina, Vigeavano, near Milan, was held overnight and brought before Dublin District Court on Friday morning.
According to the Irish Times, he pleaded guilty to engaging in threatening, abusive or insulting behaviour on an aeroplane contrary to the Air Navigation and Transport Act.
Judge Anthony Halpin highlighted the seriousness of the Ebola virus, calling the prank a "sick joke" and comparing it to a bomb scare.
Mr Binaschi was very apologetic about the action, and offered to pay €2,500 to charity.
Judge Halpin suggested the money should go tot he Cappuchin Day Centre, which helps homeless people in Dublin.
Binaschi was spared a criminal record.
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