Angry Chinese airline worker throws chair at passengers

Chinese airline staffer throws chair at passenger

An employee of China Eastern Airlines attempts to throw a steel chair at a group of passengers angry about delayed flight from Beijing in March.

A Chinese airline staffer has been filmed attempting to throw a steel chair at a passenger during a fiery altercation at Beijing airport.

The commotion was caught on camera by American freelance journalist Matt Sheehan, who was a passenger on the ill-fated China Eastern Airlines flight.

In a blow-by-blow account penned for the website Beijing Cream, he says the reason for the fight had been hours in the making.

Sheehan had arrived at the airport 90 minutes early but like his fellow passengers, he'd become frustrated over a flight delay, lack of information and being continually sent to the wrong boarding gates.

Ten minutes after the flight was due to take off, the information screens said to go to gate 32. He and a group of about 30 passengers went to gate 32 to wait.

Then the airport screens said the flight was departing from gate 19 and off the group went.
Not long after midnight, the information screen changed again to say the flight was now leaving from gate 32 again.

Not wanting to play human ping-pong, Sheehan says the group went looking for answers.
Unable to find anyone at the China Eastern desk, they rounded on a staff room for another airline, only to be told the China Eastern staff had already "clocked out".

Sheehan says some members of the group were near breaking point.

Then they noticed three young women had appeared at the China Eastern desk.

Two older female passengers, backed by the mob, demanded to know why they had been sent around the airport to empty gates.

The China Eastern employees said the plane was leaving from gate 40 and always had been.
The mob smelled a lie. And the information screen behind the employees' head still said the plane was leaving from gate 32. If only the employees would look over their shoulders to see for themselves. They wouldn't and the passengers erupted in a hail of insults and compensation demands.

Enter the chair-throwing man Sheehan describes as a middle manager.

In a calm voice, with excellent customer service skills, he tried to placate the crowd. But, in a fateful move, he too refused to look at the screen that was still telling passengers to go to gate 32. Instead he told the angry crowd:

“The flight has always been scheduled for Gate 40 . . . No, I won't turn around and look at the screen . . . No, there won't be any compensation for you passengers. OK?”

It was too much for one male passenger, who from the back of the crowd, threw a wad of newspaper that hit the manager in the face.

Sheehan said the man took the missile calmly, and walked off.

That's when a passenger threw a water bottle that hit the manager in the face. The man blew his temper.

Two China Eastern staffers wrestled with the manager, who tried to lunge at the bottle thrower.
At this point Sheehan started recording events on his phone camera, just in time to see the manager try and throw a steel chair at the bottle thrower. He didn't succeed and was bundled away cursing.

Eventually a more senior China Eastern manager arrived and settled the crowd.

The mob moved to Gate 40 and to Sheehan's surprise they found about 100 other passengers who had seemingly got the right information and knew where to go.

Sheehan's flight eventually departed Beijing four hours late.

He said his video, which he uploaded to the Chinese video sharing website YouKu, has received about 100,000 hits.

He said China Eastern Airlines has asked him to take the video down, but it's something he's ignored.

Rapid growth of air travel in China, where much of the air space is reserved for military use, has lead to regular problems with delays and diversions of flights. Some Chinese passengers have taken their anger out in extreme ways - running on to the tarmac, assaulting staff and even jumping out of emergency exits while stuck on grounded planes.


Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/travel/travel-news/angry-airline-worker-throws-chair-at-passengers-20130515-2jm9c.html#ixzz2TTwkqydb