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Angry at Delay, Shenzhen Passenger Threatens to Blow Up Airplane

A one-hour delay is long enough for some people to lose it

Last year was a bad year for Chinese airline passengers on commercial airliners. From opening emergency doors and deploying emergency slides, to splashing flight attendants with scalding hot water and threatening to blow up planes, there was no shortage of people threatening the safety of their fellow passengers. Unfortunately, 2015 isn’t off to a much better start, with yet another disgruntled airline passenger threatening to blow-up a plane, this time at Shenzhen’s Bao’An International Airport.

The passenger, identified by his surname Xie, was detained and held for 10 days for “disrupting public order” after threatening to blow-up a plane. Xie became irate after the pilot announced that the flight, which was departing Shenzhen for Nanchang, was to be delayed by an hour.

With the passengers already on the plane, Xie reportedly marched from economy to first-class, yelling at the flight crew and threatening to “blow-up the plane if it did not take off now”. The flight crew took emergency measures and immediately evacuated passengers and crew. Security boarded the plane and detained Xie, who, as a result of his disruption, managed to delay the flight for another hour.

Natalie Wang

Journalist based in Hong Kong.