State media in China has savaged four of its citizens as “barbarians” for their role in forcing a flight back to Don Mueang Airport, as more details emerged about what set off their in-flight rampage.
The outrageous incident, in which one woman scalded a flight attendant with her instant-noodle water while another man shouted about blowing up the plane, prompted The China Daily said “the four culprits” had harmed China’s image.
“They believed that behaving like barbarians would get them what they wanted, forgetting that civility demands that a fellow human being be treated as an equal,” read the editorial, according to AFP. “The incident should serve as a lesson not just for the four culprits, but also for all Chinese to behave properly to get respect.”
READ: Instant noodle attack and other weirdness forces Air Asia flight back to Bangkok
Several factors reportedly led to them going on a berserk rampage in the flight cabin. Some were reportedly upset that they were seated separately on the Nanjing-bound AirAsia flight, although the seating arrangements were made by their tour company, not the airline. Another guy could not accept the fact that change for a purchase could only be made in Thai baht, and demanded it be returned in renmibi with a receipt.
Obviously unfamiliar with this standard policy, he began verbally abusing the woman when his girlfriend threw her cup of instant noodles steeping in scalding water onto the attendant.
Witnesses said the passengers were given a choice: Apologize or the plane would return. They refused, according to the Beijing Times.
Upon return to the airport, the passengers were forcibly removed from the plane but not charged. They paid THB50,000 to compensate the flight attendant, and the woman who threw the water was gently fined an additional THB200.
China’s national tourism administration yesterday threatened to punish the group, blacklist them from travel and suspend the license of their tour company.
About 100 million Chinese travelers have gone abroad this year, and with them has developed a stereotype for loud, loutish behavior. The etiquette and expectations of air travel may be new to some. Just this past Sunday, a man popped the emergency exit door “for a breath of fresh air” just before takeoff on a domestic flight from Hangzhou.
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