Plane passenger caught urinating in a cup before spilling it on a flight attendant

A passenger has been fined for urinating in a cup during a delay in deplaning.

The incident happened after landing at Sydney Airport after a three-hour Air New Zealand flight from Auckland.

It happened last December and a Sydney court fined the 53-year-old man 600 Australian dollars ($395) for offensive behavior in February, officials said on Friday.

The incident only came to public attention on Friday, when New Zealand news website Stuff reported that a passenger in the same row, identified only as Holly, said she had reported the behavior to the air crew.

She said she and her 15-year-old daughter were sitting in the aisle and middle seats when the man in the window seat, whose name has not been released, was urinating in a cup.

Holly said the plane had been on the tarmac for about 20 minutes, waiting for a terminal gate to be allocated, when she heard the unmistakable sound of the passenger urinating in a cup, Stuff reported.

She said the man was “obviously quite drunk” and spilled urine on a flight attendant as he left the plane, it reported.

But the mishap with the attendant wasn’t his crime. Australian Federal Police said in a statement that officers removed him from the plane because he had “urinated into a cup while in his seat.”

Air New Zealand said it does not comment on individual incidents. It said it bans between five and 10 customers each month for disruptive behavior, including intoxication.

Last year, a passenger was filmed urinating on the floor of a plane cabin in footage shared online.

The woman, who can be seen squatting in a corner with her trousers down, claimed that flight attendants would not let her use the toilets onboard for a number of hours.

A few months before that, a LOT Polish Airlines passenger removed his pants and urinated on the plane door during a New York-Warsaw.

The man was allegedly drunk when the incident occurred, half an hour before the aircraft was due to land at Chopin Airport.

He has since been banned from flying with LOT for life.