Advertisement

Fight forces China-bound plane back to Zurich

Malcolm Curtis
Malcolm Curtis - [email protected]
Fight forces China-bound plane back to Zurich
File image of a Swiss Airbus A340 (Photo: Montague Smith)

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.

Advertisement

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.

More

Join the conversation in our comments section below. Share your own views and experience and if you have a question or suggestion for our journalists then email us at [email protected].
Please keep comments civil, constructive and on topic – and make sure to read our terms of use before getting involved.

Please log in to leave a comment.

See Also