Woman to contest Vic flight protest charge

A university student plans to contest a charge she interfered with a crew member when she protested the deportation of an asylum seeker from Australia on an interstate flight.

Jasmine Pilbrow, 22, appeared before Ringwood Magistrates Court on Thursday charged with interference with a crew member of an aircraft in February last year.

Pilbrow will contest the charge laid a year after the Melbourne to Darwin flight incident during which she refused to sit unless a Tamil man, who was being deported to Sri Lanka, was allowed to leave the Qantas plane.

Qantas briefly banned her from their services before reversing the decision.

The student is not sure why the Australian Federal Police want to prosecute her over the non-violent protest.

"It's been quite hard trying to figure out what's going on," she told AAP after her court appearance.

"We have no idea about what the reality of my sentence will be.

"It's nothing compared to why I took that action, and what happened to that asylum seeker," she said.

"So I'm willing to take this on."

She is still in contact with the 25-year-old Tamil man, known as Puvaneethan, whose deportation she tried to stop.

After Pilbrow's protest he was taken back to a Melbourne detention centre before he was eventually deported to Sri Lanka.

Pilbrow has received messages of support from around the world from those opposed to the mandatory deportation and detention of asylum seekers.

"It's been amazing to see and know that the refugee movement is so frustrated and angry with our government at the moment that they're willing to support people taking these actions."

Pilbrow is due to appear at Broadmeadows Magistrate Court in May for a contested mention.