![Jasmine Pilbrow outside court.](/web/20160904023430im_/http://www.theage.com.au/content/dam/images/g/r/7/k/1/2/image.related.articleLeadNarrow.300x0.gr7jb8.png/1472804872075.jpg)
A protester who refused to take her seat on a plane until an asylum seeker headed for deportation was removed has been asked to pay Qantas more than $3000 in compensation.
Jasmine Pilbrow, 22, boarded a Qantas flight from Melbourne to Darwin in February 2015, believing an asylum seeker passenger on the plane was en route to being deported to Sri Lanka. Pilbrow refused to sit down as flight attendants were preparing for the plane to take off.
![Jasmine Pilbrow was asked to pay more than $3000.](/web/20160904023430im_/http://www.theage.com.au/content/dam/images/1/3/x/o/x/5/image.related.articleLeadNarrow.300x0.gr7jb8.png/1472804872075.jpg)
Two other passengers – who were not charged over the incident – also stood up. The asylum seeker and Pilbrow were removed from the plane, which was delayed by almost an hour.
On Friday, magistrate Meagan Keogh found Pilbrow guilty of interfering with a crew member and asked her to voluntarily pay Qantas $3429, which the airline argues it lost because of the incident, including fuel costs and delays to a number of flights.
Ms Keogh also asked her to pay about $300 in legal costs to the Commonwealth. Under the law, the magistrate can't order the costs to be paid until she sentences Pilbrow.
Pilbrow represented herself at Broadmeadows Magistrates Court, arguing that she was not guilty because she had stood to prevent the asylum seeker from being returned to Sri Lanka, which was a "sudden, extraordinary emergency".
The asylum seeker feared for his safety if returned to Sri Lanka, but had exhausted his legal avenues to stay in Australia and had been given 72 hours' notice of his return, she said. Fellow activists had already unsuccessfully tried to stop a van from taking the man from detention to the airport.
"This small window of time created the sudden emergency," Pilbrow said. "My actions were reasonable because the safety of another person's life was at stake."
The community development student argued that the Department of Immigration, Serco security guards who escorted the man onto the plane and Qantas could have intervened by choosing not to help the man get deported.
She said she had travelled to regions of Sri Lanka where Tamils were under military surveillance.
Prosecutor Holly Baxter said the magistrate could not be sure what would have happened to the asylum seeker on his return to Sri Lanka.
"The fact that [the defendant] doesn't agree with government policy ... doesn't make it an emergency in accordance with the law," she said.
Ms Keogh said she was not convinced that an emergency existed at the time, despite Pilbrow's political beliefs.
The asylum seeker has since been taken to Sri Lanka, Pilbrow said. He was detained soon after he returned and is due to face court.
The maximum penalty for the crime is two years' imprisonment.
Pilbrow will return to court in November to be sentenced.