Preetam Prakash Maid (32) did so, the Crown says, to expose problems he saw around lax security at his workplace.
The defendant is on trial before the Dunedin District Court charged with taking an imitation explosive device into a security-enhanced area under the Aviation Crimes Act, which carries a maximum penalty of five years' imprisonment.
Crown prosecutor Robin Bates told the jury this morning the device – which was found when the country was on high alert in the days following the Christchurch mosque attacks – also came with a hand-written note.
The note listed “ABCDEF” vertically and a word corresponding with each letter.
“Alpha, Birds, Crash, Dunedin, Emergency, Fools,” it said.
A police hand-writing expert was unable to form a definitive conclusion as to who penned the note.
But Mr Bates said they found indications it was written by Maid.
The defendant was completing a perimeter check of the airport as part of his job on March 17 last year, the court heard.
He called his supervisor to report a suspicious item.
A photo Maid took that day showed a black bag in the doorway of a hut at the north end of the airport property.
The small building contained technology that helped planes to land.
Once emergency services arrived and neutralised the item, police sifted through its contents for clues.
They found a butane bottle from a Soda-Stream, a silver cell phone and battery, and wires all connected by tape.
The police investigation began to focus on employees when some staff recognised the items as having come from a secure storage room where prohibited goods were held.
Mr Bates said when Maid's movements through the airport were analysed through his swipe card use, it revealed some anomalies.
The defendant allegedly accessed the corridor adjacent to the storage room twice that day – an area he would not normally go.
Electronic records showed he spent 11 minutes in the zone in the morning and 10 minutes there in the afternoon.
The court would also hear evidence of Maid using tape in the aviation-security office that day, Mr Bates said.
CCTV would show Maid arriving at work with a black and white backpack for the start of his shift in the morning, the prosecutor told the jury.
Later, he would be seen with a plain black bag heading towards the security-enhanced area.
Mr Bates stressed the Crown did not have to prove a motive behind the alleged crime.
However, Maid and others, he said, had “issues” with security around a northern gate at the airport as well as the screening of small, provincial flights.
Co-workers would give evidence of the defendant being “vocal or hot-headed” about the perceived problems, the court heard.
Greater security would mean an increase in hours and wages for staff, Mr Bates said.
Maid allegedly called various media outlets after the incident to get “maximum publicity” about the security breach.
Defence counsel Deborah Henderson said it was not her client who took the imitation explosive device to where it was found.
The trial, before Judge Michael Crosbie and a jury of eight women and four men, is expected to last at least two weeks and hear from nearly 50 witnesses.
