Angry passengers take Jetstar crew hostage

[TIMA9X]

http://images.smh.com.au/2012/10/30/3754939/art-Jetstar-A330-Take-off-620x349.jpg Angry passengers have held a Jetstar crew hostage after a flight delay in China. Jetstar A330

A JETSTAR pilot and crew were held hostage for more than six hours by a mob of angry passengers after their flight was diverted from Beijing to Shanghai because of bad weather.
The experienced Australian pilot is being hailed a hero for his calm actions after being confronted by the angry passengers as they disembarked at Shanghai's Pudong Airport.
Upset at the delay and fearful that they would be abandoned and left to find their own way to Beijing, the passengers bailed them up inside a section of the arrivals area and refused to let them leave.
The A330-200 flight, which originated in Melbourne and picked up passengers in Singapore, was flying Australian and Chinese nationals to Beijing, when it was forced to land at Shanghai on Friday.


Trouble erupted after Jetstar staff told passengers of the delay and offered them a hotel for the day and later flights once the fog that closed Beijing Airport had lifted and the Jetstar crew - who had flown over their hours - were replaced.
The cabin manager on the Jetstar flight spoke fluent Mandarin and was able to communicate with the Chinese passengers. The ground staff for Jetstar at Shanghai were also fluent in Mandarin.
But it is understood the passengers did not trust the promises of the crew and refused to let the captain and crew leave.
The Chinese police were called in and passengers and Jetstar officials also contacted the Australian Embassy in Shanghai for help.
After tense negotiations, the pilot managed to get some of the crew released, but he stayed to continue to calm down the passengers and make alternative arrangements for their travel. Some were put onto trains to complete their journey and others onto different flights.
A spokeswoman for Jetstar said that due to heavy fog in Beijing last Friday, Jetstar flight JQ7 from Singapore to Beijing was diverted.
"Due to the unscheduled landing, there was a delay in arranging customs and immigration processing for our passengers which resulted in our crew exceeding their flying hours," she said.
"Our Captain and crew assisted passengers in a calm and professional manner in what was a difficult situation for all involved."
A spokeswoman for the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said the incident took place in the Customs and Immigration Hall of the airport.
She confirmed that they had been contacted for assistance.
"The Australian Consulate in Shanghai contacted Shanghai Public Security authorities and Jetstar management to confirm the welfare of all Australian passengers and crew," she said.
"An Australian consular officer also spoke to the Australian flight captain to offer consular assistance. The captain confirmed that he and his crew and passengers were safe, " the spokeswoman said.
It is not the first time passengers have staged a revolt at Shanghai airport after a flight was delayed.
The incident on Friday echoed another in July this year when more than 200 United Airlines passengers, who were stranded for three days, staged an angry revolt threatening violence against airline staff.
That flight, which was due to fly from Shanghai to Newark, was three days late because of cancellations and a crew who were timed out had flown over their allowed hours.
In that incident, passengers told the media that they became so angry and frustrated that people just started screaming and rushed at the pilots.

Read more: Jetstar Passengers Take Crew Hostage | Shanghai Pudong Airport (http://www.smh.com.au/travel/travel-incidents/angry-passengers-take-jetstar-crew-hostage-20121030-28hbo.html#ixzz2AlAoQt8B)



Amazing... Kudos to the pilots and crew.... awful situation .....wow what a day for Aus aviation stories...

[SOPS]

Thats how it goes in China. Just wail until Jetstar Hong Kong starts. well done to the crew!!

[CaptCloudbuster]

Word from Singapore is it didn't happen. Fancy the media getting it wrong:rolleyes:

4 Hour delay due Customs:cool:

[TIMA9X]

possibly a decoy story, considering today's events over at DJ..... Be interesting if this was a fed story from you know who... http://images.ibsrv.net/ibsrv/res/src:www.pprune.org/get/images/smilies/bah.gif

Natalie O'Brien is not a regular aviation reporter.. do we smell a rat here?

[Wedcue]

Decoy? According to Singapore it didn't happen?

Ask the crew about the injuries they received, ask the captain to show you his bruises.

It happened.

[Sue Ridgepipe]

Hardly newsworthy, this sort of stuff happens every day in China. Get used to it if you're gonna be flying for Crapstar Hong Kong.

[bubble.head]

It does not surprise me at all. Some passengers over there are on the "extreme" side of things. Example number 1

Missed Flight - Woman's Airport Freak-Out Caught On Camera - YouTube

[wishiwasupthere]

THAT......IS.......HILARIOUS!!!

:ok::ok:

[AEROMEDIC]

....and what did the police do?

If it were all foreigners and a China Airlines crew, they would shoot first, arrest those still alive, and lock them up for a few years awaiting trial.

The pax committed a crime that is a crime in most other countries in the world and should have been charged.

According to the story, they were offered accommodation until they could get on later flights. What made them think that they were getting empty promises on that?

I think that it's outrageous that because the aircraft diverted to ensure the safety of the passengers, that they were ungrateful fro the professionalism of the crew and ground staff.

I'm sure that if this happened in OZ, the culprits would be in jail now.

[Toruk Macto]

The police will always back the Chinese national over a foreigner, fairly standard day in China , not really news worthy . Best to stay in cockpit ! Pay out cash quickly and hope it fixes problem . Enjoy !

[Mimpe]

Its not cricket in civil society , thats for sure.

An ancient civilisation thats still learning the ropes..

[moa999]

Have seen a version of that vid with translation.
Was apparently taped by a CX staff member.

Pax ended up getting big compensation from CX....
encouraging that kind of behaviour

[600ft-lb]

That woman is a kind of metaphorical China complaining about some insignificant islands in the middle of nowhere recently.

I still love the whole 'I paid a few hundred dollars for this ticket I want want want!'

[Sunfish]

That's what you get for flying Jetstar or Qantas.

[Karunch]

This is what happens when the Jetstar sh*tstorm & the PRC sh*tstorm combine, the crew get left to fend for themselves. Onestar have probably only just found Shanghai on the map.

At least the PRC sh*tstorm may get better in time.

I guess thats why the crew get the big bucks......

[Algie]

A lesser man than I might point out that Qantas has held the Australian travelling public hostage to it's Sydney-centric anti-growth policies for years. The worm finally turns?

[Wedcue]

You're my hero Sunfish

[oicur12.again]

tis China.

My personal fave China experience was an early PVG arrival for a quick turn followed by wx delays that lasted 8 hours resulting in our return flight being cancelled and taking a further 4 hours to deplane. No one to operate the bridge for 4 hours. KA jet next door asking for police to assist as pax were assaulting the cc. Police never showed up.

Not bad for a "you wait 10 minutes" kinda delay.

[600ft-lb]

Jetstar passengers were 'extremely obnoxious' | News.com.au (http://www.news.com.au/travel/news/officials-stood-by-during-jetstar-hostage-drama/story-e6frfq80-1226507494812)

A PASSENGER has told of the extraordinary scenes as Chinese security officials stood by while angry passengers confronted the crew of a Jetstar flight.

He said when passengers saw the captain and crew trying to leave, they ran over to them.

“They had them bailed up against a wall with a semi-circle of people around them,” Mr Johnson said.

“The captain was being assaulted. They were preventing him from leaving, physically restraining him and trying to take his bags away.”

These are the people we aspire to please on a national level ?

[TIMA9X]

Decoy? According to Singapore it didn't happen?

Ask the crew about the injuries they received, ask the captain to show you his bruises.

It happened.

Wedcue, thanks for putting things straight about this story

Certainly not a decoy story, and no need to ask the captain..... it happened...sad... but as I said, well handled considering they were fending for themselves.... :D


http://images.smh.com.au/2012/10/31/3757281/art-353-johnson-300x0.jpg Alastair Johnson

Security, immigration and customs officers at Shanghai Airport stood by and watched as a mob of angry passengers assaulted an Australian Jetstar pilot and crew they had surrounded and held hostage (http://www.smh.com.au/travel/travel-incidents/passengers-take-jetstar-crew-hostage-after-delay-20121030-28hrv.html), after their plane was diverted due to bad weather.
In what one passenger described as unbelievable scenes, no-one came to the aid of the pilot who was bailed up against a wall and being physically restrained by the passengers.
Alastair Johnson, who was on the flight, said he tried to intervene to stop the mob assaulting the pilot. But when he asked the nearby officials to call the police they told him to call the police himself.
Fairfax has been unable to contact the Chinese Embassy in Canberra for comment.
Advertisement
The A330-200 flight which originated in Melbourne and picked up passengers in Singapore was flying Australian, US and Chinese nationals to Beijing on Friday.
Mr Johnson, a product manager for the telco supplier, Alcatel-Lucent, was on his way to a conference in Beijing when fog forced the plane to divert and land at Shanghai's Pudong Airport.
He said the plane landed early in the morning and the passengers remained on board for a couple of hours while it was decided what action to take.
He said the situation was testy but calm on board with Jetstar crew keeping everyone up to date on developments, but the situation soon escalated once they got off.
Mr Johnson said they headed into the terminal and Jetstar staff divided the passengers into groups, those who had to get to Beijing urgently, those who could wait until the Jetstar pilot and crew, who were over their legal flying hours limit, could continue to fly the plane and those who wanted to return to Singapore.
But that was when things really started to go wrong and the passengers became "extremely obnoxious". He said the ground crew were extremely passive and patient.
At one stage, Mr Johnson said that 150 passengers were shouting at one crew member who was just taking it.
"Then suddenly a bunch of people ran away so I went to see where they went," Mr Johnson told Fairfax.
"They had seen the captain and the flight crew who were trying to get their bags and leave.
"They had them bailed up against a wall with a semi-circle of people around them."
The captain, first officer and cabin crew were in the semi-circle.
"The captain was being assaulted. They were preventing him from leaving, physically restraining him and trying to take his bags away."
Mr Johnson said the captain was very calm and kept saying to them "these actions are not going to help".
All the while the uproar was being ignored by airport officials. He said not a single one came to help or called police despite Mr Johnson asking them to.
"For the crew I think it was pretty scary. But the captain remained calm, even though he wasn't happy about it - about being physically handled.


Read more: Jetstar Hostage Drama | Shanghai's Pudong Airport | No Help For Crew (http://www.smh.com.au/travel/travel-incidents/extremely-obnoxious-no-help-for-jetstar-crew-as-passengers-held-them-hostage-20121031-28j45.html#ixzz2AqDoqr5S)

[pull-up-terrain]

A JETSTAR pilot and crew were held hostage for more than six hours by a mob of angry passengers

Out of curiosity were they actually held hostage for more than 6 hours? or was it more like 15 minutes? I just find 6 hours a bit hard to believe.

[gobbledock]

LCC offer crap service, pure and simple. You get what you pay for and obviously these punters didn't like it.
The other bleeding obvious is that people today have in general turned in to complete arrogant turds. The JQ episode is indicative of the direction the human race has lowered itself to. Get used to it, no doubt more things like this will make the news in the future.

[A. Le Rhone]

It doesn't matter if LCC offer crap service this appalling behavior reinforces the terrible image Chinese passengers are creating.
They can be arrogant and awful passengers. Taiwanese passengers are even worse - forever claiming compensation and thinking it's their right to behave abysmally. Assaulting staff is not uncommon and 'security' staff are too useless/gutless to intervene.
Westerners are not immune from this (particularly when alcohol is involved) but there is an appalling attitude to what are deemed to be service staff in Asia.
The Captain is to be applauded for his self-restraint.
he would have been fully entitled to defend himself with a solid thumping of the offender but with 100 or more encircling him this would not have been at all wise.
A rotten situation indeed.
Shame on them.

[waren9]

just another example of the half-arsed contingency planning capability of the jetstar machine.

[404 Titan]

Unfortunately this type of behaviour is very common with mainland Chinese passengers. We have had similar incidences here at CX as well as KA and I know mainland Chinese carriers deal with this type of BS all the time. You are dealing with pax that only a very short time ago would never have been able to leave China let alone travel by air. They are generally only allowed to travel with approved tour groups where I believe these scams are hatched. I wouldn’t be surprised if the tour group leader in a lot of these cases was the instigator.

It is unacceptable that crew have to face life threatening situations like this but unless considerable diplomatic pressure is placed on China by various governments around the world to beef up security at Chinese airports and impose serious penalties on the perpetrators, the situation won’t change.

[Anthill]

I would identify those passengers and deny them from boarding on the next sector. They are a safety threat and have shown that they cannot be trusted to follow crew instructions. Simple as that.

[Ushuaia]

Posts here are implying, implicating, Chinese nationals as being the antagonists.

I post this with great trepidation: do not want to get into any racist brawl, but I really would be interested in clarifying exactly what nationalities were involved.

If they were Chinese I would be deeply unimpressed and sadly not altogether surprised, given what I have seen in the past.

It cannot be ruled out that Australians were involved. Can anyone rule that out? If they were involved, in any way, I would be even more disgusted and ashamed. Please tell me that ugly-Australians-abroad were not amongst the antagonists?

Yes, this is no-frills, LCC service at its finest though. Nothing against the crew, they obviously did a sterling job under duress. But they are clearly on their own when things go pear-shaped, which is disgraceful. Shameful. I can't wait to see Jane Hrdlicka drag herself away from the kids, go and meet with DFAT, perhaps head to China and find out why there was zero police/airport staff assistance in this instance, but most importantly seek assurances that this indifference won't happen again! Maybe I expect too much from CEO's, DFAT, and of China!

[404 Titan]

Ushuaia

I doubt very much foreigners were involved. This is the modus operandi that mainland pax have used countless times before. It is organised and I wouldn’t be surprised if airport security are on the take as well. Corruption on the mainland is rife and goes all the way to the top. Unfortunately the only way to sometimes get things done is to pay the right people off.

[Toruk Macto]

The Aussie way of trying to negotiate and come to a compromise will be taken as a sign of weakness which tends to strengthen their resolve . VIP passengers may be traveling with security who may be armed if your departing China !

[Sheep Guts]

This case will keep repeating itself and get worse as the Chinese Economy tumbles. It's happening at my carrier and others in the same region all the time. Combined with horrible ATC airspace management and "flow Control" delays and then to put up with this is abysmal. There seems to be no Policing on this issue in China. 1963 Tokyo convention doesn't count in China. There s no protection for crew or Pilots, especially if you do something wrong. Not even AFAP connections will help you. The Chinese PRC pax are different breed, and are used to getting their own way.

If I were the crew I would take up legal action against the Airport for failing to provide security.......
Impossible in an Autocratic State though....

[hoss]

Can just picture the local basketball stadium, the last 4 cases have just had their timely execution and then the judge announces "Jetstar versus PRC".

Too close to call!

[Ejector]

I agree, can anyone confirm this this?

Quote:
A JETSTAR pilot and crew were held hostage for more than six hours by a mob of angry passengers
Out of curiosity were they actually held hostage for more than 6 hours? or was it more like 15 minutes? I just find 6 hours a bit hard to believe.

[Yarra]

W9....An interesting point of view


What would your contingency plan have been???

[swab]

Yarra

Who cares what Waren9's contingency plans or mine or yours may have been.
It's up to JQ to have the contingency plan! They're the ones who should be looking after the crew....don't you think?

[Karunch]

Jq's contingency plan is simply to file the alternate on the flight plan.

Everything else is up to the crew. A real quality organisation.

[Sunfish]

Great advertising for Jetstar.

[moa999]

There seems to be a lot of "LCC blame" going on here.

What support does any airline have when it lands at an aiport where it doesn't have any flights.

One could ask the same for Qantas on the same route, but then it doesn't fly to the capital of our largest trading partner (ie Beijing).
What if a SIN-LHR flight had to make a medical emergency stop at Istanbul , Aleppo or Baghdad and the crew went out of hours.

[AEROMEDIC]

Great advertising for Jetstar???

This is probably the kind of attention that they think that works for them.

Everyone else advertises the good points and enjoyable parts of the journey.
Hrdlicka may view this a some weird positive that if things turn pear shaped, the crew will deal with it.
She seems very quiet on this front.

A firm statement and a public thank you to all the crew would not go astray.

[PBY]

China is a very backward society. You will not believe it, until you live there.
I had passengers who refused to board and encircle the airplane, so we could not start engines. I had people banging things inside the airplane. I had 4 passengers not leaving the airplane after landing in Shanghai 8pm. I had to stay on the airplane till 6 am. Police never intervenes, because if the Pax are chinese, they are not sure about their guanxi (the pax could be a wife of somebody important). If it is a foreigner, they are more brave, because guanxi is unlikely.

[Zapatas Blood]

Gobble/waren9/Ushuaia/swab

These comments and others simply highlight the ignorance with which many Australian airline pilots go about their jobs. Sheltered workshops are wonderful places.

The JQ incident in PVG has NOTHING to do with being a low cost carrier.

Qantas would have done NOTHING differently. You think you can sweet talk your way out of a situation like this in China? Aint gunna happen and it doesn’t matter how much “support” your airline offers.

We all know there are the “lets jump on JQ for anything that unfolds” brigade but the PVG story as written is not an appropriate opportunity to do this.

Wishing it doesn’t make it so.

[waren9]

?

i dont give a flying rats arse what the customers got or didn't get as far as customer service goes, or what nationality they were. want service recovery in case of disrupts? buy a ticket on an airline that delivers that.

it appears the company failed to ensure the safety of their crew. end of.

[Zapatas Blood]

Waren,

What would QF have done differently? Do QF flights carry their own body guards? Are their pilots bigger and tougher and meaner and more suited to staring down an angry mob of Chinese?

Really keen to know.

[Sheep Guts]

I can understand the desperation of the passengers. They are not part of the 300 million new middle class but the 800 million sub sub middle class. Not to mention the 150 million still living on a dollar fifty a day.They only barely qualify for credit cards, if the carrier drops them in Shanghai rather PEK. That's a huge commute. Even on their carriers this reaction is very prominent. Low cost is a new idea in mainland China and will be hard to manage. It will be interesting what contingencies will be in place, otherwise the model won't work.

[Sunfish]

Son flew CX from Hong Kong last year and observed that the CC had vey little control over the Chinese passengers the main thing was that they ignored the fasten seat belt warning and were going to the toilet on takeoff etc.

[waren9]

mr zapatas

i dont work for qf so cant speak for them. no one goes to work to get assaulted.

because its in china thats ok though, right ?

if youre going to operate a jet to somewhere, it pays to have some sort of ability to deal with it in case it lands somewhere else.

its not like the pic rang ops after landing in shanghai and surprised ops by saying "well, we're not in beijing!"

is it?

[oicur12.again]

Waren,

You have a great future in politics.

"it pays to have some sort of ability to deal with it in case it lands somewhere else"

Such as . . . . . ?

[Ushuaia]

Zapatas Blood,

In case you have forgotten, PVG is a Qantas MAIN airport. It has regular services there. Qantas has a contract with a ground services company to provide support for passengers.

I have no idea exactly what has transpired here, but passengers bailing up crew and physically restraining them suggests that something has gone very wrong here. The big question is: did Jetstar get on the blower to its "parent" and say "we need to use that ground support company." I hope so. Are standing procedures in place for such a contingency at PVG? Is there a "price" JQ has to pay QF for this? Were those staff present or not? Even if you don't have a standing arrangement at a non-MAIN airport, the company can (and does) get on the blower to the airport in question and "buys" such support, eg the Istanbuls, etc.

The ground staff should take over responsibility for pax once the aircraft is on the ground. The aircrew should NOT be responsible - they need to go get minimum rest and be ready to take the aircraft onto the destination as soon as legally possible.

Having diverted to a few non-MAIN airports (international ones) during my QF time, I know that QF is right on the ball usually with this. Yes, I think the full service QF does handle it pretty well; that "legacy" experience shows through at such times.

This incident smells of two things: (1) poor organisation on the ground by JQ, but ALSO (2) obnoxious customers. The latter will not handle the former well. The passengers will tolerate the aircrew gathering up their bags to head to a hotel provided those pax are being looked after by someone, by ground staff, and that they know the plan. In the absence of this it is not surprising that obnoxious pax will fly off the handle.

What is most unexcusable is if the police, etc are that bad that they do zip all. God help us in the Chinese 21st century....

[Yarra]

swab...W9's comment implied that HE/SHE would have done something differently and I was interested to know what that might of been...

As for your remark about crew being looked after....what would you expect to be achievable in doing do????

[oicur12.again]

“…..suggests that something has gone very wrong here.”

Yep, it has. But don’t for a second think that it couldn’t happen to your full service airline. In China, you bet.

“The ground staff should take over responsibility for pax once the aircraft is on the ground.”

They should. And in China mostly they do. But when it turns pear shaped, really pear shaped . . . they wont. The staff were probably there, as directed by the boss who took the call from Qantas. But they won’t assist. They don’t know how to, they are not trained to and last week they were selling iphones, next week maybe insurance. More importantly, they care just enough to ensure they do not get fired at the end of the day but not enough to care about you and your pax.

“The aircrew should NOT be responsible - they need to go get minimum rest….”

Yep, true. Idealistic yet completely unrealistic for what will actually happen in China.

If PEK was closed for fog then the amount of traffic backed up in PVG/SHA etc would create chaos. Any non-PRC carrier will be last, no deice for hours if needed, no aerobridge to deplane pax for half a day. No assistance from police despite giving a mayday call. This happens, I have been involved and it will happen no matter how many “standing procedures” you have in place.

The bottom line is had this been a Qantas jet, the SAME THING COULD EASILY HAVE HAPPENED.

It is a crappy place to be when the wheels fall off the wagon and it is getting worse rapidly.

[PBY]

Whoever has not worked and lived in China for at least a year, is very naive about the situation. I have worked for a chinese airline and we could do nothing about his groundjackings as we used to call it. How can anybody blame Jetstar is beyond me. I am sure, that those who try to blame jetstar have never been in this situation. In China you can beat your wife just in front of a policeman and he does not give a rats. That is the reality of the culture. There is only two reasons when police is swift. It is if you have invalid visa or if you do something against the communist party. Anything else is ignored. You could work for Air China and be in your base and you are not any better off. The chinese airlines always advise you to do exactly what the crew did. Do nothing. Otherwise it can turn very ugly. Good job to the crew! And if you want to fix this problem next time, change e culture and the police and political system. Good luck, it might take longer than few weeks. Also some chinese kungfu lessons is not a bad idea, in case it turns ugly. But blaming airline only shows, that you have never lived in China and try to understand it with your western experience.

[bdcer]

Yes, I've personally seen similar in Qantas. Capt went to brief pax in terminal in overseas port (about a protracted departure delay). I tagged along.
He was mobbed by aggressive pax. No support but we managed to get away. Having said this, there was no physical assault, just being jostled around by an angry mob.

[Ushuaia]

I appreciate all the insights here about flying into China. I do mean that - my own experience is limited to HKG and Macau. I am quite stunned by what you describe - obviously I am naive about it (I'm being sincere about that) and yep, how does an airline (full service or LCC) deal with it? Australia should basically give them the flick but, oh, we cannot do that......

It would seem that carrying alternate fuel for Japan, Taiwan or Korea would be the best answer! :(

[smiling monkey]

Son flew CX from Hong Kong last year and observed that the CC had vey little control over the Chinese passengers the main thing was that they ignored the fasten seat belt warning and were going to the toilet on takeoff etc.

Sunny, have you seen the state of the public toilets in China? The passengers probably thought the toilet on CX was part of the business class section.. :E

[*Lancer*]

WRT the assertion the crew weren't looked after by Jetstar, it's Qantas GROUP security that gets involved. The Duty Security Controller isn't just for mainline. Someone got the Aussie consulate... Maybe it was them?

[Mstr Caution]

WRT the assertion the crew weren't looked after by Jetstar, it's Qantas GROUP security that gets involved. The Duty Security Controller isn't just for mainline.

Not any more!

As of 1st July 2012 the "Qantas Group Security & Facilitation" has moved to a decentralised model. (each business unit pays for their own security team)

There is now a "dedicated" security team for each business, being Qantas International, Qantas Domestic & Jetstar.

Each now has their own Head of Security (P.D for JQ) who report to the Group Head of Security.

As far a security incidents such as this, each will manage their own business & the Group Head of Security ensures oversight for regulatory compliance.

MC

[Lineboy4life]

Jetstar & the Chinese traveling public are worthy of each other...

[landrecovery]

Titan 404 is the only one here with any clue.

This is ops normal for Chinese citizens.
It happens every day in various forms. They have totally different morals to western society and many thing are :mad: in the media so you will never hear, this just happens to have happened to someone who can report it without retribution.

[ManillaChillaDilla]

Simply Disgusting.

Yeah the passengers were bad but some of the post here are atrocious.

So.. the company you work for dictates how you should be treated as a Pilot a Person and a Human.

What happened to decent guys flying planes?

:ugh:

[Bula]

A few as$holes and elbows would have the authorities attention.... Being back the biff!

[oicur12.again]

"So.. the company you work for dictates how you should be treated as a Pilot a Person and a Human."

No, the country you are flying into dictates this and your company will have no influence over it at all.

China is a modern form of the wild west. The JQ boys are lucky, it could have been much worse.

Dont let the big motorways and glass buildings fool you.

[niksmathew24]

Similar story happened in incredible India a few days ago..worth a read!:ok:

http://www.pprune.org/south-asia-far-east/498413-security-officials-surround-aircraft-threaten-arrest-passengers.html

[Gnadenburg]

I recall being wet leased to Air China and some passengers carried guns. The flights were domestic.

Welcome to the Asia Century.

[YPJT]

So the mentality of the bogan traveller has no cultural bounds. :}

[Trevor the lover]

OICUR12again has it ABSOLUTELY SPOT ON.

Unless you have lived and worked in the region it is hard to fathom. The Chinese are unbelievable with their behaviour when things go astray - be it weather or whatever. They don't care, they riot. And usually the ground staff scarper, turn off handheld radios, take phones off the hook - anything to avoid being involved, or doing their job. Same goes for police and airport security.

Once in KA, I took ill suddenly. On descent into a Chinese port I started to feel poorly. During the turnaround I neary fainted during the walkaround. Once back in the cockpit, with the door open, I started hurling violently. All the pax could hear me chundering. Clearly I could not continue. But the riot that ensued. Disgraceful human behaviour.

Ask any KA guys about what they had to deal with during the Air China wet leases 6 or so years ago. Crews locked in the cockpit for their own safety, escaping through the E&A bay onto the tarmac due to Chinese kicking in the cockpit door.

Unless you've been there, you've got no idea. The Chinese are on their own disgraceful planet!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Gnadenburg]

Trevor

That's a fair degree of sinophobia.

If mainland passengers are misbehaving, tell Beijing ATC you have pro-democracy protesters on board, and you will be met by shock troops from the PLA's 27th army upon arrival.

[DrPepz]

Trevor isn't really exaggerating. I'm a Singaporean and have worked and travelled around China a lot. These sorts of things are regular occurrences in Chinese airports. Once flights are delayed, the entire mass of pax just lunge forward towards the duty manager, threatening this that and other.

Singaporeans and Hong Kongers can't stand such behaviour from mainland Chinese. Remember they were largely peasants 50 years ago, so it would take some time for the behaviour to evolve, and I think Singaporeans and Hong Kongers behaved like that 50 years ago, after all we are descendants of peasant stock!

[Trevor the lover]

Hey Gnads

One man's Sinophobia is another man's reality!!! :ok:

[captains.log]

10 years ago….. I’m sure nothing has changed..

[illusion]

10 years ago….. I’m sure nothing has changed..
What with; Jetstar or Chinese passengers...?