Woman who insisted on making phone calls during flight detained by Beijing police
A Chinese woman who allegedly repeatedly tried to make phone calls on her mobile phone during a flight has been detained by Beijing police, mainland media reported.
The flight crew alerted police after the passenger, identified only by her surname of Yu, tried several times to make phone calls before the aircraft travelling from Changchun had landed at Beijing International Airport, the Beijing Times reported.
The woman, who had been attempting to contact people to pick her up, initially switched off her phone when flight attendants and other passengers asked her to stop. But later she turned the phone back on and refused to turn it off, the report claimed.
She allegedly claimed the flight attendants were “being too fussy”, the Times reported.
The woman was detained by police once the plane had landed.
When questioned by police, Yu allegedly claimed that she had often made phone calls during flights and had never been stopped before.
China’s civil air safety regulations state that people who use mobile phones or laptops that pose a threat to an aircraft’s navigation during a flight can be fined 2,000 yuan (HK$2,520). Under public safety law they can also be detained for up to five days.
