A Chinese passenger has been tackled by a plane’s cabin crew after she allegedly coughed at flight attendants on purpose amid coronavirus outbreak.
The unidentified woman was infuriated while being held on board for nearly seven hours waiting for health checks after the Thai Airways flight landed at the Shanghai Pudong Airport last Friday.
The female passenger is seen in a video being restrained by a male cabin crew member after she began coughing at one of the air stewardesses.
A Chinese passenger has been wrestled into her seat by cabin crew after she allegedly became irritated by a seven-hour health screening process and deliberately coughed at the staff
The unidentified woman was infuriated after being told that the aircraft was held for up to seven hours for coronavirus checks as the Thai Airways flight landed in Shanghai last Friday
A staff member can be heard saying in Thai, ‘come here, help me put her down’ before telling his colleague to ‘get handcuffs’, according to reports.
The woman screams ‘what did I do wrong’ while another flight attendant tells her to ‘please stay down’.
The airline confirmed the incident in a post on their official Weibo page and said the local airport has recently intensified the level of coronavirus checks, particularly for passengers travelling from high-risk countries.
The female passenger was seen in a video being wrestled by a male cabin crew member after she began deliberately coughing at the staff members. The picture shows her being restrained
The woman screams ‘what did I do wrong’ while another flight attendant tells her to ‘please stay down’. The picture shows the moment the passenger being restrained by the cabin crew
Prathana Pattanasiri, Vice President of aviation safety department at Thai Airways, said the cabin crew couldn’t open the plane doors until health officials arrived to carry out the screening tests.
‘The Chinese passenger was upset about being held for a long time and coughed at one of our staff members. After she calmed down, we explained the situation to her and she agreed to sit and wait for the screening.’
The footage was uploaded on YouTube by a passenger who claimed to have been on the four-hour flight TG664 from Bangkok.
The Shanghai Pudong airport has recently intensified the level of coronavirus checks for travellers as a Russian medic is pictured checking the temperature of passengers on the plane
Travellers are seen filling out quarantine forms at Narita airport after arriving from Hong Kong
The description of the video said it was a ‘bureaucratic, dysfunctional mess at Pudong airport’ that was ’caused by planes having to wait six to ten hours at the gate after landing with all passengers still on board’.
‘One Chinese woman went stir crazy on a Thai Airways flight and deliberately coughed on a female flight attendant to try to pressure the staff to open the doors and let her out.
‘Senior male flight attendant was having none of it, warned her, then a scuffle ensued. He was going to put her in cuffs, but eventually chose not to,’ the fellow passenger added.
The screening process at the Shanghai airport has been sped up since the incident, according to the social media post from Thai Airways.
A spokesperson from the airline said the cabin crew couldn’t open the plane doors until health officials arrived to carry out the tests. A worker is seen checking a passenger’s temperature
A group of Korean air stewardesses are pictured waiting to have their temperatures taken
The novel coronavirus, which is believed to escalate in Wuhan, has killed 3,119 people in China and infected over 80,700 people.
Worldwide, the deadly disease has infected over 110,000 people and claimed at least 3,825 deaths.
Italy has been the most-affected country in Europe, with the death toll rising to 366.
The coronavirus has now infected more than 110,000 people around the world and killed at least 3,825 – it has reached most corners of the globe except for East Africa
The UK has confirmed 69 new coronavirus cases bringing its total count to 278. Pictured above is a woman wearing a face mask walking past an empty aisle in a London Asda store
Almost 300 people in the UK have now been diagnosed with the coronavirus five weeks after the first two patients – a mother and son in York – were confirmed on January 31
An outbreak started on British soil last week and a third person died on Sunday – more than 270 people have already been infected and there are no signs officials will be able to contain the virus from spreading more in the coming days.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson is today hosting a Cobra meeting of senior Government ministers to discuss how best to tackle the deadly outbreak.
It comes after sources inside Number 10 last week said officials believe the virus ‘is highly likely that it is going to spread in a significant way’.