Mile high exposure

An Australian man has been fined for masturbating aboard an aircraft.

Lucas Steven Knudson maintains he was "just adjusting himself" rather than pleasuring himself in full view of another passenger.

A court in Darwin heard mother-of-two Simone Holt describe how she awoke around three hours into the Virgin Blue flight from Brisbane to Darwin in Australia to find Knudson apparently playing with himself in the aisle seat next to her, shielding his activity from other passengers with his shirt.

Holt said she turned her reading light on to indicate she was awake, and although Knudson stopped, he left his genitals exposed outside his jeans.

Ms Holt says she then asked to be moved to another seat while Knudson stretched out across all three seats to sleep with his fly undone.

Knudson said Holt's story is "bulls**t".