6th June 2023 – (Taipei) A Japan-Taiwan flight on June 4th was disrupted by an unruly Japanese passenger who caused chaos in the cabin. The China Airlines flight, CI111, was scheduled to depart from Fukuoka at 10.55am and arrive at Taoyuan Airport at 12.05pm. The incident occurred after the plane’s doors had already been closed, when a Japanese passenger became agitated with flight attendants who were speaking to her in Chinese. The passenger believed that the plane was departing from Japan and insisted that the flight attendants speak to her in Japanese. Despite attempts by flight attendants to calm her down, the passenger continued to become more agitated and started shouting uncontrollably.
Video footage taken by other passengers on the flight showed flight attendants trying to explain and appease the passenger, but she continued to accuse them in English and Japanese. Other passengers on the flight attempted to intervene and stop the passenger’s behavior, but they were unsuccessful. One passenger even expressed their frustration with the situation and requested to be seated away from the unruly passenger.
During the exchange, a female flight attendant issued a verbal warning to the passenger, stating “You are violating the law. I warn you again for the following behaviour.” However, despite multiple attempts to resolve the situation, the passenger could not be calmed down, and was eventually asked to leave the flight. The passenger was handed over to local airport police for further handling. The entire incident caused a delay of nearly 40 minutes before the flight was finally able to take off.
Taiwan’s national airline, China Airlines, confirmed that an unruly passenger disrupted the flight and refused to comply with the crew’s instructions. The airline stated that flight attendants had attempted to communicate with the passenger in different languages, but their efforts had been in vain. Ultimately, the airline crew asked the passenger to disembark in order to ensure the safety of all passengers on board.