SHANGHAI ¨C On Jan. 12, West Air flight PN6272 was taxiing to the gate at Jiangbei Airport in Chongqing, China, when a passenger decided, for no discernible reason, to open an emergency exit door, thereby deploying the evacuation slide.
His impulsiveness had precedent. Two days earlier, members of a tour group on a China Eastern flight in Kunming, furious over flight delays, pulled open emergency exits on their plane just as it was about to take-off for Beijing. And their madness was preceded, in turn, by a Xiamen air passenger who on Dec. 14 opened an emergency exit during taxi so that he might ¡°get some fresh air,¡± and on Dec. 12 by a China Eastern passenger who opened ¡ª yes ¡ª an emergency exit on a parked, just-arrived aircraft so that he could ¡°get off the plane faster.¡±
Taken alone, none of these incidents would rise to the level of news. Taken collectively (and in combination with a lengthy history of similar incidents), they suggest that China is facing a crisis of airborne sanity and civility. The Chinese government itself seems to have embraced that framing: the China¡¯s National Tourism Administration has created a ¡°National Uncivilized Traveler Record¡± that it now distributes to travel-related businesses around the country. (The group who opened emergency exits on January 10 has already been placed on it.)
With your current subscription plan you can comment on stories. However, before writing your first comment, please create a display name in the Profile section of your subscriber account page.