The Wednesday morning flight from Chengdu to Urumqi in China was halted for an hour following a slightly funny incident that happened while passengers were aboard.
According to reports, one of the passengers opened the emergency exit door of the aircraft as it was about to take off. He claimed he “just wanted to get some fresh air”.
The ‘fresh air’ incident led to the delay of the flight for an hour while the airport ground staff shut the door, assessed the man and carried out other security and safety checks before clearing the aircraft for take-off.
The man, when questioned said it was a honest mistake as he mistook the lever on the emergency exit for what he could use to roll the window down.
Following the incident, a member of the Chengdu Airport staff cautioned on-board passengers that the emergence exit was only to be used during emergencies, any other circumstances short of that could warrant the person’s blacklist from air-travels, criminal charges and other relevant penalties.