Chinese Man Escorted Off Plane After Opening Emergency Exit

By Austin Coley, July 3, 2019

Thai police escorted a Chinese passenger off his flight from Bangkok to central China. The flight was delayed by almost two hours after the passenger opened the emergency exit before the plane took off.

Witnesses reported the passenger simply grabbed the handle to the exit and pulled down. As passengers yelled at the man, the cabin crew rushed onto the scene. However, the man seemed scared and confused as he apologized to the crew.

Apparently the man was unaware that he wasn’t supposed to open the door. Nevertheless, his ignorance did not stop him from being escorted out by police officers.

This is by no means the first time a Chinese passenger has disrupted a flight. In April, a man delayed a flight for 30 minutes after throwing coins on the tarmac for good luck. This resulted in a 10-day detention and separation from his wife and child. Airport staff stated the coins could have been sucked into the plane’s turbines and caused engine failure. This was just one out of four similar cases within two years.

Although detention sounds bad, worse has happened when passengers tampered with airplane parts. In one case, a flight attendant smashed a bottle of wine over a passenger’s head to stop him from opening an emergency exit mid-flight.

For any future passengers worried about being sucked out of an emergency exit by an unruly passenger, there’s some good news. It is physically impossible, due to the pressure difference between the inside and outside of the plane, for a human being to open the exit at cruising altitude.

[Cover image via Pixabay]