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Lai Ying-kit

A mainland Chinese couple and their three-year-old son were ejected from a Hong Kong-bound Cathay Pacific flight after the toddler’s refusal to put on his seatbelt sparked off a heated argument on the plane.
The incident happened minutes before CX654 was scheduled to take off from Bangkok, Thailand, at 3.15pm on Tuesday.
The boy apparently refused to take his seat and wear the seatbelt, a fellow passenger surnamed Lau told the Apple Daily newspaper.
Flight attendants asked the family to follow safety instructions, but the parents refused and argued that the boy should sit on his mother’s lap instead.
According to a video Lau took of the row, another female passenger, apparently irritated by the commotion, told the crew to “call police”.

WATCH: Apple Daily video shows the seatbelt dispute on a Cathay Pacific flight

The female passenger, speaking in Cantonese, told the mainland couple: “We are customers too. Why are you allowed to harass the whole flight?”
The toddler’s father said they would not be “bullied” into leaving. “If others keep harassing us, we will not leave the plane,” he said in Putonghua, according to the video clip.
However, when more airline staff members were called in to intervene, the family grudgingly left the plane.
Cathay Pacific said the decision was based on safety grounds, as the passengers refused to follow the cabin crew’s instructions.
Aviation rules require passengers to be seated, with their seatbelts fastened, during take-off and landing.
Cathay said the flight was delayed by 27 minutes.
Just a day before, on Monday, there was a similar incident on another flight returning to Hong Kong from Bali, Indonesia. The Hong Kong Airlines crew had to call police when the plane landed at Chek Lap Kok airport after a mainland Chinese boy, aged 3, would not remain in his seat.
The boy’s grandparent carried the boy despite the cabin crew’s insistence that the child should sit in his own seat and wear a seatbelt.


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Chinese tourists

Mainland Chinese couple, toddler booted off Cathay Pacific flight over seatbelt dispute

The mainland Chinese mother takes her child and leaves the cabin after a heated dispute with fellow passengers and crew. 

The mainland Chinese tourist (right, in white shirt) gestures to another passenger who confronted him, as a flight steward asks him to step off the plane. 

Aviation rules require passengers to be seated, with their seatbelts fastened, during take-off and landing. Photo: SCMP Pictures

News

Hong Kong

A mainland Chinese couple and their three-year-old son were ejected from a Hong Kong-bound flight after the toddler’s refusal to put on his seatbelt sparked off a heated argument on the plane.


Video | Mainland Chinese couple, toddler booted off Cathay Pacific flight over seatbelt dispute

A mainland Chinese couple and their three-year-old son were ejected from a Hong Kong-bound flight after the toddler’s refusal to put on his seatbelt sparked off a heated argument on the plane.