Earlier this week, a mainland Chinese woman whose flight was delayed almost 11 hours acted like a true Hongkonger in the face of struggle: she protested, peacefully.
The woman was one of 268 passengers on Hong Kong Airlines flight HX312, which was scheduled to depart from Hong Kong International Airport for Beijing at 3:35pm on Monday. After waiting in the air condition-less cabin for almost an hour, however, passengers were told by the pilot to disembark the aircraft due to multiple delays, and handed food vouchers by the flight crew in compensation, Apple Daily reports.
At 8:30pm, passengers were allowed to board the plane again, but had to suffer through delay after delay with no set takeoff time. As tensions rose, passengers began complaining angrily to the flight crew at around midnight, demanding to either be let off the plane or taken to Beijing immediately.
Footage obtained by Apple Daily shows passengers arguing with flight crew who were stationed by the door, with one older woman angrily exclaiming that she would leave and find another flight to Beijing. At one point, the woman pushed her way out the door and lay down on the ramp apparently in protest.
While the situation never escalated to the point of violence, police were called to the scene to calm passengers down. Police officers managed to coax the woman back to her seat and the flight eventually took off at 2:10am on Tuesday, 10 hours and 35 minutes after its scheduled departure.
Hong Kong Airlines issued an apology to all passengers, and said the delays were due to air traffic issues at Beijing Capital International Airport which affected multiple incoming flights.
Flights to and from China are notoriously unpredictable; an issue which aviation experts attribute to the Chinese military’s control over the country’s airspace, leaving less than 30 percent of airspace for commercial flights, China Daily reports.
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