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Update: a 27 year old cameraman, a 40 year old sound recordist, and 24 year old production coordinator have also been arrested. . All are from Auckland.
The three men were arrested this morning. They will appear in the Counties Manukau District Court this afternoon on charges under Section 56A of the Civil Aviation Act 1990.
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Good on the police in their fast action in making arrests after an incident at Auckland domestic airport at the weekend in which a “comedian” from an Auckland-based TV programme crew pretending to be an airline pilot tried unsuccessfully to get into the security area.
A 33 year old Company Director; a Film Producer aged 26 years, and a 32 year old broadcaster have been arrested. They’re named as Pulp Sport’s Ben Boyce, the Rock’s Bryce Casey, and Andrew Robinson.
They were filming a sketch for TV3′s Wanna-Ben show.
The Prime Minister rightly called them clowns playing games in the middle of the RWC.
The revamped Auckland domestic terminal
This afternoon’s police statement says:
The penalty for this offence is 12 months imprisonment or a fine not exceeding $10,000.
Detective Superintendent Andy Lovelock says: “I wish to acknowledge my team of investigators who have worked tirelessly to bring about a result in this enquiry. I acknowledge Civil Aviation, Aviation Security, the media and the public too for their consequential support to Police. There has been magnificent cooperation from all concerned.” “
Police will make no further comment at this time as the matter is now before the Court,” Detective Superintendent Lovelock said.
They have said sorry. That’s not enough.
But it’s outrageous that anyone should think it a joke to test the system.
And some TV people seem to think they are above the law.
Sadly, travelling on planes these days is a serious security matter and passengers making jokes about bombs on board or people trying to test the system should have the book thrown at them.
I hope in this care they do.
At least we know the security works although I am surprised the man was allowed to walk away.
Another comedian was in court recently with name suppression and let off lightly because the female judge said he made people laugh.
Let’s hope a more intelligent judge this time gives them some time in jail to think about their sense of humour.
11 Comments
attempts at so-called humour around serious places such as airports will only result in more hassle for the genuine travelling public.
Its sad that people in our society obviously think there is a place for these kinds of actions
It would have been interesting to see if the Police had drawn there guns on them, might not have been such a funy moment for them.
They’ll get a slap on the wrist. They are “celebrities” after all.
The only reason they don’t have name suppression is that they love the news promoting their show for free.
And we know what happened to a recent celeb “comedian” in the courts. He was let off with a slap of a wet bus ticket for sexual acts against his own daughter.
I hope Ben gets a sentence for this, to stop him travelling internationally.
Wow - Go to Britomart and your confronted by security staff everywhere. Go to the airport and it seems that for such a major security breach your turned away and allowed to walk out the door and drive away ?
Jon C
“Good on the police in their fast action in making arrests”
Other media have stated that the guys handed themselves in as soon as they where aware of the incident they caused.
I wonder what the outcome would have been if they tried something like this in New York or at LAX? Or somewhere in Texas?
Boring who cares!
@ John Dalley. Even if they had been tasered. Give them some pain so they can see exactly how funny they are. I really hope they get prosecuted. If it could be proved even the rest of those working on that programme that knew of the stunt should also been brought in.
This big “security” fuss is just being made by those who would have been acutely embarrassed if the security had been breached.
Jeezes. Im all for humour, but this was beyond stupid. We all know full well that you cannot even use the word “bomb or “terrorists” anywhere near the Airport perimeter.
Jeez, I’d like to see what happens to them if they did it at JFK, or even Kingsford!
“But it’s outrageous that anyone should think it a joke to test the system.”
Well, actually I think that sometimes the system HAS to be tested. Who watches the watchers? Security companies and police world over have screwed up, been corrupt, or simply asleep on the job so many times (which is just the way the world is - we aren’t perfect, and neither are bureaucracies!) that we should not automatically assume everything is “just dandy” and safe because it is forbidden.
That’s not claiming we have a problem with our security, nor saying that it isn’t right to charge these people for the acts they did. I just don’t get all the moral outrage. A lot of investigative journalism is walking very grey edges, and sometimes even beyond the law.
Admittedly, these seemed to have been TV clowns, not investigative journalists, but what if this person HAD been allowed through? Would you rather live on unknowing in such cases?