- An Air China flight was canceled after a passenger accidentally opened an emergency exit.
- Local media reported the first-time flyer confused the exit for a bathroom door, citing officials.
A passenger opened an emergency exit after mistaking it for the bathroom door, according to Chinese media reports, which cited local officials.
Data from Flightradar24 shows last Thursday's Air China flight from Quzhou in eastern China to Chengdu in the western Sichuan region was canceled.
According to the Chongqing Morning Post, authorities at Quzhou Airport confirmed that the passenger was flying for the first time and believed the door led to the bathroom.
A screenshot of a Chinese flight-tracking app showed that the flight was canceled due to "passenger reasons. An image of an Airbus A320 with an emergency slide deployed, purported to be the plane involved in the incident, was shared by local outlets and circulated on social media.
An Air China flight bound for Chengdu was abruptly cancelled after a passenger, mistaking an emergency exit for the lavatory, inadvertently deployed the Airbus A320 aircraft’s emergency slide at Quzhou Airport in Zhejiang province.
— FL360aero (@fl360aero) July 8, 2024
The incident occurred on board Air China’s… pic.twitter.com/2sHB4wOBCS
According to the long-running Chinese newspaper Guangming Daily, Air China rescheduled the flight for the following day, July 5.
Flightradar data shows the following day's flight departing at 10:22 p.m., around one hour and 40 minutes late, and landing around an hour late at 12:31 a.m. on July 6.
One passenger told the outlet that flyers were offered compensation of 400 yuan ($55).
Air China did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.
This isn't the first time that a new flyer has made a mistake in China.
In March, a China Southern Airlines passenger threw coins into an Airbus A350 engine, prompting the airline to post a warning on social media. Similar incidents were reported in 2017 and 2019, with the latter resulting in a lawsuit for $21,000.
Other passengers have also had problems with the emergency exits. In January, an Air Canada traveler boarded a Boeing 777 and then opened a door before falling onto the tarmac.