Shock jock in airport clash

Iain Stables says he plans to take civil action. Photo / Supplied

Radio "shock jock" Iain Stables has been involved in a physical altercation with an airline employee at Auckland airport after he arrived late for a flight.

Witnesses said security guards had to separate the two men on the floor of the domestic departures area at the airport.

Stables, who was meant to begin a new job on Radio Hauraki today after two years off air, will not be working because of the injuries he said he sustained. He claimed the altercation began when a Jetstar check-in staff member told him that he was too late to board a flight to Wellington on Saturday.

He claims he was attacked after he told the worker he was a loser "with a loser airline" and started to walk away.

Stables said it took three airport security staff to pull the man off him.

He was in Wellington hospital on Saturday night with a concussion, and he claimed he was finding it difficult to urinate. "I'm not well at all. It's not good. I can't hear and I can't even urinate. It was a totally vicious attack."

He was unimpressed with how Jetstar handled the incident, he said, adding that he would be taking civil action.

A young woman who witnessed the incident claimed the Jetstar employee just "lost it" because Stables was provoking him.

"He [Stables] started swearing and he said to the guy at Jetstar that he was going to take him to court and he would make him lose his job."

She said before she knew it "they were next to the toilets and the guy from Jetstar had him pinned on the ground when security came down and broke it up". Another eyewitness claimed the Jetstar employee had jumped over the counter after Stables threw something at him.

Jetstar spokesman Gerard Blank confirmed the incident and that it started because Stables missed his flight.

"As a result of the subsequent actions of the passenger, airport security was involved. Jetstar management is reviewing the incident."

Meanwhile, Stables' new employers did not know anything about the incident when the Herald phoned. David Brice, The Radio Network's programming and marketing director, said: "We'll have to find out what happened and have a look at it. We'll be discussing it with him tomorrow."

Auckland Airport police were called to the incident, but a spokesman said they were unable to comment due to the "nature of the person" involved.

This afternoon Stables hd been due to take over drive slot at Radio Hauraki, a station owned by the Radio Network.

He left his previous employers, ZM, on bad terms in 2008 after he said the radio awards were "the most PC, non-entertaining thing I've been at in ages".