Scuffle breaks out on China plane after woman attempts to open door mid-flight

Scuffle breaks out on China plane after woman attempts to open door mid-flight

It was drama up in the skies over China when a scuffle broke out between a female passenger who wanted to open an emergency exit door, and a flight security officer.

According to the South China Morning Post, the Capital Airlines plane was en route from Changsha in Hunan province to Sanya in Hainan Island when the altercation happened on Monday afternoon (Jan 4).

As the flight security officer subdued the woman, who then threatened to commit suicide, two other passengers came to her aid and helped her fend off the security officer, South China Morning Post said, citing a report from zgjtb.com, a news portal under China's Ministry of Transport.

Flight attendants later helped the flight security officer to subdue the trio. Meanwhile, Sanya airport police were alerted of the fight.

Beijing Capital Airlines told the South China Morning Post that a woman in her 20s and "other relevant individuals" were handed to the airport police when the flight landed at around 2pm.

Chinese passengers' penchant for opening airplanes' emergency exit doors is not unheard of.

In Dec 2014, a passenger caused a scare on his flight when he yanked open an emergency exit to "get some fresh air", just moments before the Xiamen Air plane was due to take off.

In the same month, another impatient passenger on a China Eastern flight opened an emergency exit to deploy an emergency slide as the plane was taxiing to its berth, as he wanted to "get off the plane quicker."

In the wake of these embarrassing incidents in China and abroad, China's national tourism authority has created a blacklist of its unruly tourists who misbehave overseas.

According to Xinhua, offences that could earn obnoxious tourists a place on the blacklist include "acting anti-socially on public transport, damaging private or public property, disrespecting local customs, sabotaging historical exhibits or engaging in gambling or pornographic activities".

grongloh@sph.com.sg

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