Court slams TikToker for following plane turbine 'fad'

On his final day at work, a baggage handler seeking a memento stripped down to his shorts and jumped into a moving jet engine.

Preslie Ginoski's video of him flexing his biceps and doing push-ups centimetres from the engine fan went viral on TikTok in January.

Captioned "quick pump before flight", it sat beside a slew of his other fitness clips until police saw it - and didn't see the funny side.

The 23-year-old bodybuilding fan pleaded guilty on Wednesday to threatening aviation safety and failing to wear a safety lanyard in Sydney Airport's security zone as a magistrate slammed him for being stupid, vain and irresponsible.

A court was told the now-former baggage handler had been following a social media "fad".

Ginoski's lawyer pointed to a photograph of a female flight attendant who had separately filmed herself in a turbine.

"He was doing it for that purpose, to try and gain social media attention," lawyer Ahmed Dib told Downing Centre Local Court.

Besides criminal charges, the attention had resulted in Ginoski losing a cadetship with a construction firm.

He expected a second cadetship would be rescinded if convicted.

Ginoski had also suffered stress because his university professors said they did not want him bringing the same sort of conduct on campus, Mr Dib said.

"What it has done is put a target on his back," the solicitor told the court.

Magistrate Greg Grogin replied: "He put it there".

Mr Grogin described the young man as stupid, vain and irresponsible but not naive because he knew what he was doing when he filmed the video and uploaded it to social media.

His actions were more than reckless because he jeopardised the safety of a number of people in seeking a memento of his last day on the job.

"He took off his top, he took off his required security badges and decided to show off his body," the magistrate said.

"I am really at a loss as to what motivates people to do such things.

"You chose the wrong day, the wrong thing to do and the wrong memento."

Mr Grogin agreed with prosecutors a conviction was necessary after hearing the consequences could have been "catastrophic" had a foreign object fallen into the plane's engine.

A message had to be sent out to the social media community to stop similar fads, he said.

Ginoski was convicted of both offences and fined $2400.

Reflecting on the video outside court, the 23-year-old thanked God the engine had been off.