<strong>China: Flight Crew Turn Blind Eye to Smoking Passengers</strong>

Source from:  Ecns.cn (cn)  09/02/2014

Crew members on a China United Airlines plane were criticized for turning a blind eye to passengers smoking in the lavatory and outside the cabin door.

Twenty-three passengers remained at Beijing Nanyuan Airport for several hours after their plane, China United Airlines flight KN5216 arrived in the capital from Chengdu on Sunday morning, pressing the airline company to explain why its crew failed to stop some passengers from smoking onboard.

About one hour after the plane took off from Chengdu Shuangliu International Airport at 10:11pm on Saturday, August 30, a flight attendant found that someone had smoked in the rear lavatory, said a passenger surnamed Huo. The smoker denied having lit up until the attendant seized his cigarettes and matches.

Around 3am, four or five people were caught smoking by the cabin door following the plane's alternate landing in Taiyuan due to heavy downpours in Beijing. At that time the plane was undergoing refuelling, with the fill-truck parked near by.

Some passengers protested and called airport police who ordered a security check. The crew refused, saying it would be a waste of time and insisted on taking off.

The plane landed in Beijing at 4:57am. Twenty-three passengers demanded an apology, a ticket refund and 200 yuan per hour for the nine hours they had spent at the airport.

The captain of the plane claimed these people were allowed to smoke with his consent, and that protests were unnecessary since the plane had landed safely.

On-flight smoking can be very dangerous. According to the International Civil Aviation Organization, about 80 percent of plane fires are caused by smoking in the toilet. Civil aviation law expert Zhang Qihuai said smokers are subject to fines and arrest, and that crew members are obliged to stop them.

China United Airlines has since compensated the 23 passengers with 1,800 yuan ($300) each and a domestic round-trip ticket.

The company is still investigating the case and will announce the result on its official Weibo account later this afternoon. Enditem