A Chinese Woman Opened an Airplane’s Emergency Exit for ‘Fresh Air’

This, after she was warned not to touch the button that opens the door.
china airplane emergency door woman open
Not the actual airplane. For illustrative purposes only. Photo by Suhyeon Choi on Unsplash.

Airplane emergency exits are meant for exactly that—emergencies—but a woman in China didn’t seem to get the memo when she opened one even after flight attendants warned her not to.

She was in a Xiamen Air aircraft in the city of Wuhan bound for Lanzhou city on Monday, Sept. 23 and opened the emergency door before take-off because she wanted a “a breath of fresh air,” the South China Morning Post reported. Apparently, the plane was “too stuffy.”

The cabin crew had briefed the woman about not pressing the button that opened the emergency exit but after they turned away, she opened it anyway. For this, the woman was detained by police, causing at least an hour delay for the flight.

Passengers onboard took videos of the incident, which have now become viral.

This follows many other incidents of airplane passengers opening emergency exits. In June, a woman in Pakistan opened an emergency door thinking it was the bathroom. In May, a man in China thought he could disembark the plane through the emergency door.

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