A passenger opened an Air China aeroplane’s emergency door, thinking it was the restroom, causing an emergency slide to deploy and leading to the flight’s cancellation at Quzhou Airport in Zhejiang.
The incident occurred on board Air China’s CA2754 flight to Chengdu at around 8.45pm on Thursday (4 July).
It was the passenger’s first time flying, police confirmed.
A chain of events appeared to have caused the incident, according to reports.
One passenger told reporters that he was hit on the head by someone’s luggage on the flight. He then called flight attendants for help.
During the process, there was no one in the rear cabin of the plane. As a result, nobody stopped the passenger from opening the emergency escape.
Source: Shine.cn
The Public Security Bureau of Quzhou Airport confirmed that it was the passenger’s first time flying aboard a plane. It further confirmed they mistakenly opened the emergency door, thinking it was the restroom.
“I didn’t expect this to happen to me,” a passenger named Mr Chen told the Chongqing Morning Post on 5 July. “I was sitting in the front of the cabin on CA2754 flight from Quzhou to Chengdu last night. It was originally scheduled to take off at 8.45pm, but the plane was delayed due to traffic control.
“Then at 9pm, a passenger opened the emergency door thinking it was the toilet door.”
He added: “There was no sound when the slide deployed. After the incident, they announced a further delay, and then cancelled the flight. Air China took us to a hotel to rest.”
Another passenger recalled: “A woman ran to the back cabin and opened the emergency door, causing everyone on the plane to be grounded.”
“Today, we received compensation of 400 yuan (S$74.28).”
Along with compensation and a hotel stay, the airline also arranged a make-up flight that took off from Quzhou Airport at 11.40am on Friday (5 July) and arrived at Chengdu Tianfu Airport at 1.56pm.
A staff member of Quzhou Airport said that the incident was caused by an operational error and directed further questions to the airline involved.
A senior aviation expert told reporters that it is common for a plane’s emergency door to open and the emergency slide to be ejected.
“Depending on the aircraft model, each time the emergency door is opened, there will be a compensation of 100,000 to 200,000 yuan, and the aircraft will be grounded for maintenance within a few days,” he said.
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Featured image adapted from Shine.cn.
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