‘Nervous flyer’ Zachary Greear (34) was granted bail at Dublin District Court this evening
Zachary Greear (34), a climate research analyst, downed his own drinks, urinated in the aisle and touched other passengers inappropriately before the captain on the flight from Amsterdam decided to turn the plane around.
After Greear was removed and arrested, the flight resumed within an hour but a judge said his behaviour had caused “fear and trauma.”
Judge Michele Finan granted him bail at Dublin District Court this evening but told him to come back before her tomorrow morning with €10,000, either as a charity donation or compensation.
Greear, with an address in New York City, pleaded guilty to three offences under the Air Navigation and Transport Act – intoxication, threatening, abusive or insulting behaviour and causing annoyance on board an aircraft.
The prosecuting garda said Greear was arrested at Terminal 2 at 11.50am this morning and brought to Dublin Airport garda station. He was charged at 3.58pm and made no reply after caution.
The court heard the flight, UA71, took off from Amsterdam at 9.15am and during the flight, Greear became “unruly.”
Zachary Greear
He was highly intoxicated and urinated in his seat and in the aisle, the garda said, and passengers around him had to be moved.
Greear caused a nuisance to two females and a male, grabbing their seats and touching them inappropriately, the court heard.
He failed to desist from his behaviour when asked and was drinking his own alcohol which he had purchased earlier, the garda said. Other passengers were “in fear,” she said.
The plane was airborne for two hours and over the coast of Donegal when the captain made the decision to divert.
The garda said pilots did not like having to divert because fuel had to be dumped. On this flight, passengers were travelling after Christmas and New Year and a lot were due to connect out of New York.
When the plane landed at Dublin Airport, it refueled and was airborne again within an hour.
The garda said on arrest, the accused “couldn’t understand where he was” due to his level of intoxication but had since apologised.
Greear had no previous convictions. He had no reason to be in Ireland and no visa to stay here, the garda said.
The accused was “horrified and embarrassed” by his behaviour and offered a “most sincere apology,” his solicitor Eoghan O’Sullivan said.
He was a nervous flyer and took a Xanax before the flight but then had a lot of alcohol and it “got out of control.”
Greear had a “hazy memory” of what happened.
The accused worked in finance, doing climate research for an asset manager, and was “very highly skilled and highly trained.”
Mr O’Sullivan accepted that the circumstances were “horrific” for those on the plane but the flight resumed an hour later to bring them to their destination.
“Can you imagine the fear and trauma he caused to a pilot who is trying to manage people safely on his aircraft, to passengers, to employees of the airline who have to dump fuel and turn around a flight and land in a jurisdiction they never expected to be in?” the judge said.
Mr O’Sullivan said Greear would pay whatever the court deemed appropriate and offered $5,000.
“The sum of $5,000 doesn’t even touch the damage that this man has caused,” the judge said.
Judge Finan told Greear to “double it” to €10,000 and granted him bail until tomorrow when he will have to bring the money to court. The judge said she would decide then what to do with it.
Under bail conditions, Greear had to surrender his passport and not apply for any new travel documents.
He is also to write a letter of apology to the airline and staff, for whom Judge Finan said the court had “great sympathy.”
