China Eastern Battle Royale in Beijing!

Wow, what is it with China Eastern Airlines? First their passengers staged a sit-in at the LAX in Los Angeles and now they actually started throwing fists at Beijing International Airport... all gloriously documented by security cams.

Last night, a couple of China Eastern passengers revolted against what they felt were lies China Eastern had told them, according to China Net. The passengers had been for a 9:20pm flight from Beijing to Nanjing. But just about the time when they were supposed to board, an airline representative announced that, due to bad weather in Nanjing, the flight would be delayed until 1am. The airlines would provide them with accomodation.

One of the passengers called a Nanjing airport hotline, which informed them that the weather in Nanjing was actually fine and dandy... it was the weather in Beijing that was at fault. When they complained to the staff, they were told that there were no further explanations.

The passengers who did not want to stay at a hotel then tried to go to the VIP resting lounge, as per staff instructions. But when they got there, the VIP resting lounge had a sign saying it was closed. They were shocked when at 11pm, a passenger from the same flight exited out of the lounge. That passenger then told them that staff had told him the plane would be delayed until 5am.

This was about the time that everyone's temper's flared, with one passenger, a Mr. Xiong, saying "At that time, everyone was especially angry, first they told us there was no resting room, then they didn't tell us they'd changed the time, we all felt like we'd been lied to!"

From the video stills, it seems that one female passenger grabbed ahold of some China Eastern brochures and threw them at the customer service booth. Another female passenger got into a scuffle with a female representative, while a man and a male representative threw punches at each other before being broken up by everyone else.

Everyone except those who had been in the fight got on their flights at 5am. China Eastern said it compensated each passenger with 400RMB. Two passengers who were injured received 3000RMB and were put on the next available plane.

This morning, an official explained that the reason for the delay had been because of bad weather in Beijing and Nanjing route flow control. He also said that perhaps the airlines had not made clear that the VIP lounge was only for first-class passengers. Everything was just one big misunderstanding.