Travelers at Beijing Daxing International Airport in Beijing, China, May 1, 2021. Photo by Reuters
A flight from Chongqing to the Chinese province of Hebei was delayed by an hour because a passenger refused to stow her Louis Vuitton handbag under the seat in front of her.
A video shared last week on Chinese social media platform Douyin showed the woman insisting on keeping her handbag next to her seat.
When the flight attendants asked her to stow the bag under the seat in front of her in accordance with flight regulations, the woman ignored their request and continued playing on her cell phone. South China Morning Post reported.
The flight then had to return to the gate, where the woman was escorted off the plane by security officials, resulting in a one-hour delay.
Passengers are required to always store their baggage in the overhead bins above their seats or under the seat in front of them to prevent it from being thrown around during turbulence, which could injure passengers or block escape routes.
After the video went viral on Chinese social media and was viewed over four million times, some online commentators criticized the woman’s behavior, calling it a threat to flight safety.
“The bag was more important to her than her life,” commented one user on Weibo.
“Pray I never meet such a crazy woman in my life again,” noted another user.
Some also criticized the airline for handling the situation too slowly.
“It took about an hour to resolve this issue. Isn’t that a bit slow?” wrote one.
