There’s nothing better than a breath of fresh air when you’re stuck in a stuffy room, but one Chinese woman took it a bit too far, opening the emergency exit of the plane while waiting for it to take off.
The incident happened on board a Xiamen Air jet that was due to fly from the city of Wuhan – the capital of central China’s Hubei Province – to Lanzhou in the northwestern province of Gansu on Monday. It resulted in a one-hour delay for the flight and a change of travel plans for the lady, who was removed from the plane and taken by police for questioning.
When asked why she did it despite the crew’s instructions not to touch the button that opens the hatch, the woman, who appeared to be in her 50s, gave a simple explanation: “the cabin felt too stuffy” and she needed “some fresh air.”
The incident was captured on video by another passenger who uploaded it online, where it went viral:
The flight eventually departed from Wuhan Tianhe International Airport and safely landed in Lanzhou the same evening.
It is still unclear if the woman will face any consequences for her actions. Incidents with passengers opening emergency exits – intentionally or by accident – are not so rare. In June, a passenger on a flight from Manchester to Islamabad managed to open a hatch while searching for the restroom – luckily, while the plane was still on the ground. A month before that, a similar incident happened in the eastern Chinese province of Shandong, when an elderly passenger was so eager to disembark, he opened the emergency door as the plane sat on the tarmac. The man was detained for 10 days.
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