Men Jailed for 2 Years For Assaulting Staff After Refusing to Leave First-Class on Flight in China
By Carl Samson
Two Chinese men have found themselves behind bars a year after starting a brawl in a Hainan Airlines plane’s first class cabin.
The incident happened during a flight from Taiyuan, Shanxi Province to Chongqing on June 12, 2016.
It all started when the pair sat in a first class cabin despite paying for economy class tickets.
Crew members confronted the men shortly after, asking them to either pay the fare difference or give up the seats, The Beijing Times reported.
Refusing to pay or move to the economy class cabin, the two men then started a dispute which escalated into a brawl involving other passengers in first-class.
Four crew members, a passenger and a police officer who came in to control the situation were injured by the unruly pair, causing the flight to delay for two hours.
The duo has now been sentenced to two years in jail for “picking quarrels and provoking trouble,” South China Morning Post noted. Their names, though unidentified by reports, were also put on a civil aviation blacklist.
They were also ordered to pay a compensation of over 13,000 yuan ($1,950) to the airline, which urged after the incident:
“We call for more understanding and respect for people in service jobs and for civilized behavior in the cabin.”
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