A 25-year-old Chinese man, who felt "stuffy" and opened the Emergency Exitof a plane to get some fresh air has been detained and fined, a media report said today.
The man, identified only by his surname Chen, was waiting to disembark the plane at Mianyang Airportin the southwestern province of Sichuanwhen he decided he could do with some fresh air.
Unfortunately for him, the handle he pulled was attached to the Emergency Exitand not only did the hatch come free from the plane, but it also activated the escape slide, the Hong Kong-based South ChinaMorning Post reported quoting a Thepaper.cn report yetaerday.
Chen, who was returning from the island of Hainan, insisted he did not know that it was an escape route, adding: 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.
The crew alerted police and he was detained for 15 days for the unauthorised removal of aviation facilities. He will also be fined 70,000 yuan (USD 11,000) to cover the airline's costs.
The airline, which was not named in the report, said it would cooperate with public security agencies in their investigation.
This is the latest in a string of Safetyincidents in recent years involving Chinese travellers opening emergency exits.
In April 2016 a 30-year-old bulldozer driver, who had never travelled by air before, ignored warnings by cabin crew and opened the Emergency Exitdoor to get some fresh air just before his flight took off from Shenzhen Airportin the south of the country.
The man, who said he was worried about getting air sick, was detained for a week and fined 500 yuan after the flight was delayed for an hour.
The previous year, a man who said he thought the emergency escape handle was a handrail was given 10 days' detention and a second passenger was given a similar sentence for opening an escape hatch while waiting to board a flight at Nanjing Airport
China's civil aviation industry has responded by imposing a slew of penalties, including flying bans in addition to existing fines, on blacklisted travellers, The Postreport said.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)