“Nobody Flies”: Chinese Passenger Removed From AirAsia Flight After Demanding Crew to Speak Mandarin

On April 22, AirAsia flight D7809, scheduled to depart Chongqing at around 2:10 a.m. for Kuala Lumpur, was delayed owing to a severe disruption caused by a female passenger only recognized by her surname, Li. Other travelers videotaped the disturbance and published it online, and the episode quickly attracted global attention.

According to Mothership, the problem began when a passenger filmed Li talking loudly on her phone shortly before departure. Li asked that the passenger remove the video and apologize to her, although admitting that she had spoken loudly. The staff quickly became engaged in what began as a minor passenger quarrel.

When an AirAsia staff member intervened to resolve the situation, he spoke to her in English. And that lit a different fuse entirely.

"When I tried communicating with him, he kept speaking to me in English. I'm Chinese. Why is he always speaking to me in English? How can someone working on an international flight not even speak the most basic Mandarin? What kind of service industry is this?" Li reportedly said.

A crew member who speaks Mandarin was then called in to try to defuse the issue, but it didn't go well. Ivy Ng, a Malaysian traveler who saw the whole incident from her cabin seat, told The Rakyat Post that Li erupted twice. First, she demanded that the crew hold the flight for three friends who had missed boarding, and then, as the plane was about to push back, she refused to end a loud WeChat call.

Ng recalled as the situation escalated: "As an international flight crew, if you can't speak Chinese, how do you work in service? Problem not solved, nobody flies."

Li refused to exit when the crew asked her to, claiming she hadn't broken any laws and demanded payment for the inconvenience caused to her. The Chinese police had to take the matter into their hands. They urged everyone to remain calm, requesting that they stop filming and eventually led Li off the aircraft. But before she left, Li asked the passenger who filmed the incident to send her the footage as evidence.

The flight eventually departed at 3:47 AM, nearly 100 minutes behind schedule.

Later, a handwritten note dated April 22, supposedly signed by Li, appeared on social media. The writer acknowledged that she should not have been loud on her call, explaining that she had an argument with a neighbor. The letter stated, "This incident made me realize my mistakes," according to The Rakyat Post.

Online reactions have been widely varied. Some people echoed her concerns regarding multilingual service on foreign routes. Others pointed out that English is still the internationally recognized operative language for aviation, and that keeping an entire plane of passengers hostage at 2 a.m. is a very different topic.

At the time of writing, AirAsia has not released an official statement regarding the incident.