China Eastern Airlines has reported a passenger to police for verbally abusing and threatening a flight attendant and barred him from flying with the carrier. The move came a week after video of a flight attendant kneeling — because a beverage cart brushed the passenger's elbow — sparked an outcry on Chinese social media.
The airline said in a statement that it had secured evidence, confirmed the facts and completed a legal review, according to the South China Morning Post and other outlets on the 5th. The incident occurred on the night of Sept. 28 on a flight from Hefei, in Anhui province, to Dalian, in Liaoning province.
The carrier said it filed the report after concluding the passenger was suspected of disrupting order on board and seriously violating the flight attendant's dignity and right to perform her duties. It also suspended transport services for him under its own rules. The airline added that it is providing psychological counseling and legal support to the flight attendant involved.
The attendant touched the elbow of a sleeping male passenger while pushing the cart during beverage service. The flight attendant apologized immediately, but the passenger did not accept it, and the attendant knelt two or three times, according to a passenger surnamed A who filmed the scene. A said the cart was not moving fast, the passenger was not bleeding, and the chief purser brought an ice pack and applied it.
In a statement on Sept. 30, China Eastern said the passenger hurled crude insults, threatened to kick the flight attendant and demanded that the attendant accompany him to a hospital after landing. The chief purser and a security officer intervened, and medical staff who examined the passenger after landing found no injury or swelling.
The passenger refused to go to a hospital and left the airport. Because that statement did not say whether the airline had filed a police report, Chinese media and internet users criticized the response as passive.
Under the Public Security Administration Punishments Law, revised in 2025 and cited by the Chinese outlet Fengmian News, disrupting order aboard an aircraft is punishable by a warning or a fine of up to 500 yuan, or by five to 10 days in detention in serious cases. Public insult can draw up to five days in detention or a fine of up to 1,000 yuan. In October 2018, a passenger who struck an airline employee in the face with a mobile phone while protesting a canceled flight was detained for five days, IBTimes reported.
The Chinese outlet Chao News said an industry practice of grading staff on "zero customer complaints" discourages frontline employees from responding firmly. Zhou Zhaocheng, a lawyer at the Beijing Anjian law firm, told Fengmian News that working in the service industry does not mean surrendering one's personal dignity.
