More than 100 flights were affected on the evening of May 15, causing about 1,000 passengers to wait at the airport until the early hours of the following day.

Passengers were so upset that when airlines provided them with meals, angry passengers threw take-out boxes, bowls of instant noodles, and water bottles at the departure gate counter.

Riot police were eventual called in, and imposed order by forming a human wall.

A Southern China Airlines passenger named Wang gave a detailed personal account of what happened that night. Wang said many of his fellow passengers were upset when their 7:30pm flight was indefinitely delayed with no word from the airline of a rescheduled flight or a cancellation. Instead, he said passengers were kept in the dark until about 11pm when a group of about 20 to 30 passengers began to encircle the airline counter and angrily argue with staff.

Wang described the mounting chaos:

At that time, everybody was asking for compensation, something that is guaranteed by airline regulations. However, no one from the airline staff would take care of that. Instead, other people started complaining about other things: someone said they were hungry and wanted to eat, while another wanted accommodation. It started to get really crazy.

At 11:30pm, the airline began distributing meals to passengers, but for some people this was already too late. After waiting almost five hours after their scheduled flight, passengers were incensed. This is when some passengers threw their meal boxes into the airline service desk area. One fight broke out and equipment was smashed.

In hindsight, Wang thinks the airline should have done a better job of communicating with passengers:

For example, in terms of compensation, food, and accommodation, the airline didn’t have to wait until everyone was angry (before giving them out). When you wait that long, people are going to lose their temper and act out of control.

Wang’s flight was eventually scheduled for 4am. Southern China Airlines passengers were each compensated a total of RMB 200.

Here are more photographs of the chaos:

Related:

• Brawl Breaks Out at Shenzhen Airport Over Flight Delays
• Irate Passengers Break Into Cockpit Over Smog Delays
• Enough with Flight Delays, Consumer Group Says Airlines Need to Compensate Passengers

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The dispute broke out in economy class after one women reclined her seat about 30 minutes after takeoff. The two women behind her didn’t like it, and a brief war of words broke out that was settled by a flight attendant. But the foursome apparently sat simmering, because it boiled over five minutes later into a physical altercation complete with hair pulling and kicking.

The fight lasted about two minutes before the two women in the rear seats were moved to the back of the plane. But it was a big enough disturbance at the captain decided to land the plane in Nantong at around 5:15 that afternoon.

Police at Nantong airport arrested the four women, which are being given five days of “administrative detention”.

“The fight between the women posed a severe threat to the safe operation of the aircraft,” a police official said. “They were not acting responsibly towards the safety of the passengers on board.”

The flight was finally able to resume its flight for Shenzhen at 6:24pm.

None of the people involved in the incident have been identified. The women seated in front are described as being in their 30s and were heading to Shenzhen on business. The women behind them were in their 50s and were planning to go vacation in Thailand with their daughters after changing flights in Shenzhen.

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Flight delays are common enough in China that one would think passengers wouldn’t want to cause more delays themselves. That wasn’t the case in Shanghai on Thursday, though, when a man boarded a plane at Hongqiao Airport, took a window seat that wasn’t assigned to him, and then refused to move. His stubbornness resulted in a two-hour delay.

When confronted by the airline staff, the man said all seats on the flight are “first come, first served” and that “These are the rules of public transportation.”

After 20 minutes of talking that went nowhere, airport police were called in. Even other passengers tried to get the man to move, but he stayed seated in his precious window seat. Police finally arrested the man and the flight took off a couple hours late.

The passenger, a 38 year-old man named Zheng, has been detained.

Related:

• Angry at Delay, Shenzhen Passenger Threatens to Blow Up Airplane
• Irate Passengers Break Into Cockpit Over Smog Delays
• Mainland Passengers “Occupy” Hong Kong Flight in 18-Hour Protest
• Man Arrested For Attacking Flight Attendant During Takeoff
• Passenger Opens Airplane’s Emergency Exit Before Takeoff, Calls it “No Big Deal”
• Opening Emergency Doors on Chinese Airliners Happens More Than You Think

The post Passenger Refuses to Leave Window Seat, Delays Plane by 2 Hours appeared first on The Nanfang.

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.

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China is becoming famous for unruly airline passengers, and here’s another.

READ: Opening Emergency Doors on Chinese Airliners Happens More Than You Think

China Southern Airlines has confirmed a man popped open the emergency exit as soon as he got to his seat when boarding a plane in Nanjing that was bound for Nanning on January 9. The mess resulted in a one hour delay as police boarded to pull the man off the plane.

“Not having this door closed is not a big deal.”The man, though, apparently didn’t see what all the fuss was about. “Not having this door closed is not a big deal,” he told cops.

The police didn’t see it the same way, throwing him in the slammer for 10 days. He got off lucky, too, as according to Chinese airline regulations he could’ve been fined up to RMB 100,000 as well.

READ: Impatient Passenger Deploys Airplane’s Emergency Slide
to “Get Off The Plane Quicker”

“I just want to ask, why does this type of person that doesn’t comply with public ethics still get (his identity) obscured?” one person asked online, while another explained, “(He’s a member of the) newly rich.”

Last month, a passenger on a China Western airliner that just landed in Lhasa opened the plane’s emergency door during taxiing. In December 2014, a passenger opened an emergency door after his plane landed in Hainan because he wanted to “get off the plane quicker.”

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The middle-aged man who did it has been detained by police, and may face further detention or a maximum fine of RMB 100,000.

READ: Impatient Passenger Deploys Airplane’s Emergency Slide
to “Get Off The Plane Quicker”

This incident follows a similar one that happened last month when a passenger on board a China Eastern flight opened the emergency exit before the plane had reached the Hainan airport terminal because he wanted to “get off the plane quicker”.

But as it turns out, this is a relatively common problem.

A passenger on a flight from Hangzhou to Chongqing in February 2008 opened an emergency door because he also wanted to get off the plane faster, resulting in a two hour delay for passengers and a RMB 10,000 fine for the passenger responsible.

Due to having a “curious” nature, a passenger on a Xiamen Airlines flight to Nanning in June 2010 turned a door handle on an emergency exit. As the plane had already been in flight for ten minutes, the airplane suffered a loss of cabin pressure.

An emergency door was opened in July 2010 on a flight from Hangzhou to Macau while the airplane was taxiing. As a result, 128 passengers were delayed almost three hours, and 46 year-old Mr Fang was detained for five days and fined RMB 500.

In March 2012 on a flight from Sanya to Chongqing, a 40 year-old woman opened the airplane emergency door while the plane was taxiing because she mistook it for the bathroom door.

Having been denied compensation for a delayed flight due to rainstorms in Guangzhou, a passenger opened an emergency door in retaliation in August 2012, thus delaying the flight for another hour.

On the G52652 flight from Naning to Chongqing in December 2013, a passenger named Ding noticed the red handle on the emergency exit and became curious. When asked by authorities later, Ding said he had thought at the time, “Is this thing the same as the thing on my door at home?” For having turned the handle and opened the door a centimeter wide, Ding was detained for five days.

A Xiamen Airlines flight in Hangzhou getting ready for takeoff on December 16 last year when a 52 year-old passenger opened the emergency door to the plane. The man’s reason for doing so was that he “just wanted to take a breath of fresh air before the plane took off”.

From these examples, we can only conclude that if you have a curious, anxious, or confused nature, taking the train may be a good alternative.

Photo: Caijing, yesky

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A passenger named Miss Yu made a call on a cell phone despite being told to stop, and was punished with five days in jail as a result.

The Changchun-Beijing flight was on its descent last December 28 when Yu took out her phone and used it to call someone. After being told to stop by an airline attendant and briefly complying, Yu again resumed using her phone. She kept doing so despite repeated requests by the flight attendant to stop, all while apparently having a “malicious attitude”.

However, after landing, Yu was taken in by the Beijing Capital International Airport Public Security Bureau. Miss Yu told police she didn’t realize talking on the phone during flight was so serious, and said she often makes calls on board planes.

The report says Yu “saw the error in her ways” after police explained how phone calls could interfere with flight navigation equipment. She was then sent to jail for five days.

According to the “Punishment Given by Public Security Management” regulations, anyone that interferes with the operation of a airliner through the normal use of a device and does not listen to repeated warnings can be punished with five days in jail.

Under another law, users of cell phones or computers that interfere with the operation of an airplane can be fined RMB 2,000.

Photo: Shenzhen PSB

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Yesterday morning at around 9 on Air China flight CA433 from Chongqing to Hong Kong, Chinese passengers started fighting. It began when two women objected to a crying baby behind them, while the baby’s mother was angry that the people in front kept reclining their seat. It erupted into flying fists not long afterwards.

Thankfully the airplane did not have to turn around because of the fight, like the Air Asia flight that returned to Bangkok after a Chinese couple threw hot water onto a stewardess.

Dealing with unruly passengers has become a problem. In this case, they were forced to pay a fine. But a tourist authority has threatened the Air Asia passengers with being put on a blacklist. There have been no criminal charges in either case.

Angry Chinese travellers seem to be popping up everywhere these days. In March, a video was taken of a fight between Chinese passengers when one’s luggage touched the other passenger’s foot. On a flight from Thailand to Beijing this past April, a fight broke out between three Chinese passengers over loud eating sounds in which cutlery was used as weapons.

In September during a flight from Zurich to Beijing, an airliner had to return to the Swiss capital when a fight between two Chinese nationals occurred over the positioning of a seat rest. Later that month, a fight between two Chinese passengers over an empty seat at the back happened on a flight to Shanghai.

If punishment can’t deter bad behavior by Chinese passengers, then maybe an appeal to their own personal safety will succeed where all else has failed.

Zou Jianjun, a professor at the China Civil Aviation Management Cadre Academy, warns against fighting on airplanes. Zou said the the balance and equilibrium of an airplane can be affected by physical altercations, and in serious cases can cause the plane to crash.

Related:

• Impatient Passenger Deploys Airplane’s Emergency Slide to “Get Off The Plane Quicker”
• Irate Passengers Break Into Cockpit Over Smog Delays
• Brawl Breaks Out at Shenzhen Airport Over Flight Delays
• Mainland Passengers “Occupy” Hong Kong Flight in 18-Hour Protest

Photo: Yangcheng Evening Report, Sohu News

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