British man, 25, gets drunk, causes ruckus at Changi Airport, prompts security to press anti-hijack button, gets jail & fine
He had drunk a whole bottle of whiskey.
On September 2, a 25-year-old British man named Arudchelvan Karnan was sentenced to jail and fined after causing a disturbance at Changi Airport Terminal 1 while intoxicated. Karnan had been arrested earlier on July 20 for shouting loudly and disrupting other passengers at a boarding gate for a Scoot flight to Kuala Lumpur. The court documents revealed that he had consumed an entire 700ml bottle of Jack Daniels whiskey earlier that morning, becoming severely intoxicated.
Scoot staff at the boarding gate repeatedly warned Karnan of his disruptive behavior. When two staff members approached him, he cursed at them and refused to leave. Despite being barred from boarding the flight, Karnan persisted and attempted to enter the aerobridge. A staff member blocked his path with a connecting strip, but Karnan managed to duck under it and push the staff member, causing her to fall.
Security was alerted, and a guard pressed the anti-hijack button, causing the gate's anti-hijack door to close and preventing Karnan from boarding the plane. The police arrived shortly after, and Karnan continued to verbally abuse an officer, demanding to be taken to England. A blood test revealed that Karnan's blood alcohol level was 62mg/100ml, far exceeding the legal limit of 30mg/100ml in Singapore.
Karnan was brought to court on August 12, where he pleaded guilty to charges of harassment, public drunkenness, and unlawfully entering a protected place. The deputy public prosecutor requested a jail term of 10 to 12 weeks, citing Karnan's voluntary intoxication and the security risk he posed. Karnan was ultimately sentenced to eight weeks in jail and fined S$2,800.
Written by urgent.news from Mothership's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
