China woman causes commotion by bringing pet sugar glider onto plane, leading to evacuation

A video depicted a flight attendant kneeling on the floor and leaning over to search beneath passengers' seats. Photo: Weibo

• Incident reminiscent of 2022 case when a hamster escaped while plane was in mid-flight

Authorities detained a woman in Shanghai after she took a sugar glider onto a plane, forcing all the other passengers to disembark the aircraft.

According to a statement by the police authority in the city, the 34-year-old woman, surnamed Guo, violated safety rules by bringing a sugar glider with her to board the plane.

The China News Service reported that the China Eastern Airlines flight from Shanghai to Jinan, a city in Shandong province in eastern China, was set to take off on June 10.

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But before the aircraft took off, the pet marsupial escaped from its owner before it was caught by other people in the passenger cabin.

All the passengers were told to evacuate from the plane, and the flight was delayed due to "safety issues", the police statement said.

Guo was placed under administrative detention for "destroying the order of public transportation", and her punishment could last up to 15 days.

The incident caused a one-hour flight delay, and the plane landed safely in Jinan.

China's civil aviation authority forbids passengers from taking live animals into passenger cabins. Most airlines in the country only allow pet dogs and cats to fly, and they typically must be consigned to the luggage area of the plane.

Two short videos of the incident emerged on the mainland internet. One showed a flight attendant kneeling on the floor and bending over to search for something under passengers' seats.

The other clip featured several angry passengers arguing with staffers at a gate counter at Shanghai Hongqiao Airport.

"I am very dissatisfied. And the security checkpoint seems to have loopholes. This passenger brought a live animal onto the plane, and it ran away, forcing all of us to get off the plane and wait for an hour," said one male passenger on Douyin, China's TikTok.

"Our trip has been delayed. However, the airline company has not apologised or offered us any compensation," he said.

Guo's behaviour elicited outrage among mainland Chinese netizens.

"I think she should be included on the blacklist of all airlines and banned from travelling by air forever," said one person.

Another online observer said: "The security checkpoint at airports is strict. I wonder how she managed to pass the check with this small animal.

"Luckily, the sugar glider was found before the plane took off. Otherwise, it could have run around and chewed through the plane's circuits. I dare not imagine what could have happened then."

In 2022, a pet hamster was found in a plane flying from Zhengzhou in central China to Dalian in the northeastern part of the country. Crew members and its owner worked together before catching it. Luckily, the flight was not affected.

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This article originally appeared on the South China Morning Post (www.scmp.com), the leading news media reporting on China and Asia.

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