A member of pop star Nelly Furtado's road crew was under stress and being sarcastic when he threatened to hijack an plane during a tour stop-over in Winnipeg, says the man's lawyer.

"My client had absolutely no intent to hijack the plane," lawyer Martin Glazer told Judge Linda Giesbrecht in a Winnipeg courtroom yesterday.

In exchange for a written apology to the pilot and the plane's purser, the Crown dropped a charge of mischief against Richard Hagan, 33, in provincial court yesterday.

On April 27, 2001, Hagan and members of Furtado's entourage were waiting to board a Royal Airlines flight to Toronto after a show at the Walker Theatre when the monitor technician for some unexplained reason left the waiting area at Winnipeg International Airport.

Hagan walked past the boarding desk and was in the corridor to the plane when he was stopped by an airline employee and asked where he was going. The boarding call had not yet been made.

Zero-tolerance

That's when Hagan laughed and said he's hijacking the plane. Police were called and arrested Hagan -- who spent the night in custody, Glazer said.

"This, in my opinion, would be called ground stupidity," Crown attorney Brian Kaplan said.

Glazer said the pilot -- realizing Hagan was kidding -- was going to allow the man on the plane anyway but couldn't because of the Canadian Transportation Agency's zero-tolerance policy on such threats.

Furtado -- a Victoria, B.C. native with the hit album Whoa Nelly! -- swept up four Junos in March and has shared the stage with the likes of Aretha Franklin, the Backstreet Boys and even Elton John.

Hagan did not make a personal appearance in court yesterday.