A cough, a coronavirus check and why a passenger had to be subdued on a plane in China

Woman becomes angry over long delay on tarmac waiting for health assessments

Customs official says that Shanghai is stepping up medical checks as precaution against imported infection but that travellers need only wait one or two hours

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Video taken on board a Thai Airways flight at Shanghai on Friday purports to show flight attendants trying to control a passenger who coughed on one of their colleagues. Photo: Handout

Published: 4:31pm, 10 Mar 2020Updated: 5:42pm, 10 Mar 2020

Thai Airways staff had to restrain a Chinese woman after she coughed at a flight attendant while passengers waited for hours to get a coronavirus check upon landing in Shanghai from Bangkok.

The carrier said the woman coughed deliberately at the attendant because she was angered about the long wait for a check on Friday. It said the passengers had to wait seven hours to be screened at Shanghai Pudong International Airport.

Thai Airways said that after the passenger coughed at the woman attendant, some of her colleagues approached the passenger to stop her “inappropriate” behaviour. They then explained the situation to her and asked her to cooperate and calm down, the airline said.

The woman had to be subdued and no further action was taken, the airline said in a statement.

In footage posted online, the woman is subdued by at least one male attendant, who presses her into her seat by her neck as two more male attendants stand nearby, saying “sit down” to her in English.

The woman then yells “What have I done?” in Chinese.