BANGKOK: A low-cost flight carrying passengers from Thailand to
China was forced to return to Bangkok after a Chinese passenger
threw hot water at a cabin attendant, the airline said Saturday
(Dec 13).
Thai AirAsia Flight FD9101 departed Bangkok's northern airport
Don Mueang for Nanjing at 5.55pm (6.55pm, Singapore time) on
Thursday with 174 passengers and six crew on board but was forced
to turn back after one of the passengers attacked a steward.
"During the flight a Chinese female passenger was not satisfied
with the service and when the cabin attendant came she threw hot
water at the cabin attendant," the airline said in statement.
An official said the woman and her travelling companion were
initially angered at not being seated together. Other passengers
moved seats allowing them to sit side by side but the pair started
to argue with each other before the attack took place. The captain
of the flight, which was still in Thai airspace at the time,
decided to return to Don Mueang where four Chinese passengers were
ejected and detained at a police station.
The flight departed Don Mueang again at 10.45pm on the same day
and arrived in Nanjing Friday morning. The airline official said
police fined the Chinese passengers, adding that they left the
country on Friday. The cabin attendant received first aid on board
from colleagues and was now fine, the official added.
China has seen rapid growth in outbound trips in recent years,
and Chinese travellers are now the biggest source of international
tourism cash in the world, according to a the United Nations World
Tourism Organization. But the behaviour of some Chinese tourists
overseas has caused embarrassment at home.
In May 2013 a Chinese tourist was tracked down by furious
netizens after it emerged he had defaced an ancient Egyptian
monument. The same month a top Chinese official said the dire
manners and "uncivilised behaviour" of some Chinese tourists
overseas were harming the country's image.
- AFP/rw