Last week, a “violent fight” between two Chinese passengers on a 200-person flight from Zurich to Beijing caused the pilot (or an equally harebrained decision-maker) to turn the plane around after more than six hours in the air. (I can’t imagine what possible reason a pilot could give for doing this, or the passengers’ resultant anger.) Sadly, no one on the flight took a video, but we imagine it would have looked something like the above (original Youku version, posted yesterday, after the jump). These two men were on a domestic flight, airline unspecified, and the scuffle was over a beverage. That sounds almost as stupid as last week’s decision to head back to Switzerland. Almost.
Another Fight On A Chinese Flight, This Time Caught On Camera
10 Responses to “Another Fight On A Chinese Flight, This Time Caught On Camera”
Leave a Reply
the pilot did the right thing. they needed to land, but couldn’t land in moskow. so they returned to zürich, where the swiss fined the sh** out of them. they fine you 80 CHF for jaywalking around here, imagine for something like this ahahah
only footage found:
http://v.ifeng.com/news/society/201209/6b717c77-8994-478b-8bc6-779ce5aa20af.shtml
Why did they “need” to land?
you can see from the footage that the passenger wasn’t calming down. you cannot fly safely and restrain a drunk, violent passenger at the same time. now, zürich-beijing is 9 hours or so, they could have landed in beijing…. but i bet swiss wanted to hand this matter in switzerland, so they could be 100% sure to fine these guys properly, get the money quickly, and cover the damages. swiss style.
Instead of landing in the city that’s closer, which happens to be the destination, they decide to inconvenience 200 other passengers and then spend money to put them in hotels just so some authority figure could exercise his disciplinary daddy complex. They’re morons.
ahahahah
We linked to Danwei’s account of the Swiss flight fight in an East is Read, but worth reposting here: http://www.danwei.com/drunk-out-of-control-chinese-men-brawl-on-swiss-air-flight/
Quoting Danwei, which paraphrases the Swiss paper “Blick” (though no answers as to why the plane had to turn back):
The fight was between two men, one older at 57 years, and the other younger at about 29 years. The action commenced just after dinner was served. It all started when the younger man in the row ahead of the older man adjusted his seat backwards, causing the older man’s food to fall on the floor. The older man then proceeded to yell and shout at the man in the row in front of him. All this seems pretty normal so far.
But when the younger man kept ignoring the man behind him (still nothing strange), the older man got out of his seat and hit the young man with the flat of his hand on the head. At this, the young man jumped up and all hell broke loose, with the two hitting and shoving each other to the floor. When the stewardess tried to break up the fight, the older man was completely out of control and even tried to grab her around the throat. With the help of some fellow passengers, the man was finally brought under control. He had his hands bound and placed in the row of seats right at the back, but he kept shouting for an hour (probably until the booze wore off).
The story says they turned back over Moscow. Moscow is only 2 and 1/2 hrs from Zurich – and much closer than it is to Beijing – where does the “6 hrs” come from?
I see where the confusion comes from. The lead in the top link reads:
“Geneva: A violent fight between two passengers forced a plane carrying 200 people from Zurich to Beijing to turn back at the weekend after more than six hours in the air, the airline Swiss said Monday.”
But who knows how the plane spent those “six hours in the air”? In any case, you’re right that Moscow is much closer to Zurich than Beijing, but it still sucks that everyone had to go back.
china dog