Altercation Persists for 3 Hours Before Unruly Man is Escorted Off Plane by Police.
Turbulence is not just a weather phenomenon in the skies these days. Across the globe, aviation professionals are facing a wave of challenges. Just days after a pilot on India's Indigo Airlines was involved in an altercation with passengers, reports from China detail a separate inflight confrontation between travellers and cabin crew.
As per a South China Morning Post report, a flight in China experienced a three-hour delay, causing 300 individuals to reschedule their flights. The disruption occurred when an irate passenger, who had paid for two first-class seats, insisted on receiving three. The unidentified man engaged in a heated argument with both the cabin crew and fellow passengers during the flight from Beijing to Chengdu in the southwestern province of Sichuan on December 30.
He was adamant that, because he had bought two first-class tickets, he should be allowed to upgrade a family member from economy class for free, according to the newsportal.
A video recorded by a passenger and widely shared on Chinese social media platforms shows a man surnamed Zhao surrounded by a group of individuals, including flight attendants, security personnel, and fellow passengers. In the footage, Zhao is visibly conveying intense frustration and anger while those around him attempt to guide him on the proper way to allocate seats.
"Stop swearing at me. You have no right to do that," he bellows.
The SCMP mentioned that the quarrel began at 11am when the man's two-year-old son, who was sitting next to him in the first-class cabin, started to cry. The child had originally been sitting in economy class, but the man demanded the crew upgrade his child's seat to first class.
When his request was denied, he became angry. No matter how many times the cabin crew explained the airline's policy to him, the man was adamant that he was in the right and that he was entitled to an upgrade.