Passenger Fined $11K for Airing Out the Plane
Meg Butler May 02, 2018
A passenger at Mianyang airport has learned the hard way that a plane’s emergency exit door is, indeed, for emergencies only.
25-year-old Chen was waiting to deplane after his flight from the island of Hainan when he says, he suddenly felt uncomfortably warm. So, he reached for the handle nearest to him to let in some air:
“Because it was so stuffy, so hot on the plane, I just pushed down on the window handle beside me. When the door fell out, I panicked.”
Not only did the emergency hatch come free from the plane, but the escape slide also activated.
Chen said that he did not know that the handle that he reached for was the handle for the emergency door. Authorities arrested him anyway. He spent 15 days in jail for the unauthorized removal of avaiation facilities and will be find $11,000 to cover the airline’s costs.
“Before each take off, flight attendants inform passengers about safety precautions, “ the airline stated.
To read more on this story, go to the South China Morning Post
[Image: Twitter/@mipourako]
The airline, which was not named in the report, said it would cooperate with public security agencies in their investigation. why is the name of the airline being kept confidential. Is the disclosure a threat to national security. gotata love an open, free transparet press. They may own all our debt and be the country with the real por and wwe have become their lackey and the USA beholden to China, but still look at Human rights and freedom of the press, they have a way to go. I have a feeling that a fine of this amount, while hardly insurmountable to the average FT'er , is a defacto non chargeable bankruptcy cloud that will hand over this unsophisticated young man who exercise very poor personal judgment and is not exactly the sharpest tool in the shed. But it seems obvious that he did not act in malice or criminal mischief. The fact that the name of the airline is being withheld makes this all seem fishy . I'd say let the punishment fit the crime, but her e its the punishment fit the stupidity and ignorance . Does not seem to be criminal mischief. I think a smaller fine and meaningful community service would have been more reasonable, I guess the "keep our name secret" airline felt diffrently.
How ids it that the editorial judgement of FT and or Mr. pourako] is to lead with the fine, and not the jail sentence. We are talking about a 25 year old kid who is likely a very inexperienced flyer. What is his annual salary. obviously it was moronic what he did , and I am not an apologetic or condoning it. Maybe he made a mistake figuring it was like a bus or non aviation commercial carrier. salaries are low in China ,,,,uh uh that;s why we have a trade deficit. I find it hard to believe he caused that much in labor costs. what;s the kids salary. The average non shanghai, not large urban area wage is not all that high. How about 300 hours of community service and 10% of his earnings for 3 years. well it could have been worse, he could have disappeared into thin air , tortured and killed like political dissents in China .
All the Chinese airlines I have taken do not have air vents above passenger seats. Looking back all these airlines were very warm and stuffy.
A lot of the PRC Nationals have this exact problem: they never pay attention to anything until they cause huge problems. Try erecting a sign at an intersection in China with some specific directions, no one looks and no one follows; Putting a police officer there with a fat stack of tickets, suddenly everyone is rule-abiding. sigh...
Wow... 15 days.......... I expected that he would have to pay for the damage done, but 15 days would not happen in the US