File image of a Swiss Airbus A340 (Photo: Montague Smith)
Fight forces China-bound plane back to Zurich
Published: 03 Sep 2012 17:25 GMT+02:00 | Print version
Updated: 03 Sep 2012 17:25 GMT+02:00
A brawl between two Chinese passengers forced a Swiss International Air Lines plane carrying around 200 people to Beijing to return to Zurich on Sunday night.
The captain decided to fly the Airbus A340 back to Switzerland after flying for four and a half hours.
“The way back to Zurich was shorter (than carrying on) to Beijing,” Swiss spokesman Mehdi Guenin told Blick.ch, the online news website.
Guenin said returning to Zurich was the safest option given the circumstances.
The passengers involved in the fight were arrested on the plane by Zurich police when the aircraft arrived at the Kloten airport.
Blick said from interviews with passengers it appeared the men were fighting over a headrest.
Guenin said the head of the flight attendants’ crew was injured when he tried to mediate the dispute between the two men, aged 29 and 57.
On Monday morning, Swiss was re-booking new flights for the 200 or so passengers affected by the disruption of flight LX 196.
The airline paid the costs of putting them up for the night in hotel rooms.
Zurich police said they would be interviewing the two men arrested on Monday.
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