A Chinese woman who refused to put her designer handbag under the seat in front of her when asked by a flight attendant caused a one-hour delay and had to be escorted off the plane.
The incident attracted 4 million views on Douyin and triggered heated discussions after a passenger posted a video clip of it.
The passenger, who asked to remain anonymous, said the woman who was sitting in economy class insisted on putting her Louis Vuitton handbag next to her, instead of under the seat in front.
The August 10 flight from an airport in Chongqing municipality in southwestern China was already departing and had to return to the boarding gate.
Passengers applauded when police escorted the woman off the plane.
The incident caused a delay of one hour and disrupted departure times of later flights.
A Louis Vuitton handbag costs about US$3,000 in China and the economy class ticket for the flight from Chongqing to northern China’s Hebei province, operated by China Express Airlines, costs 800 yuan (US$110).
The airline did not respond to questions about the case or reveal the outcome after speaking to the passenger. The offending passenger’s identity was not revealed.
The incident has sparked heated debate on mainland social media.
Some people criticised the passenger, while others said the flight attendant might have been overzealous in carrying out her duties.
“She valued the bag more than her life,” said one person on Weibo.
“The flight attendant could have offered her a bag to put her handbag in. Is it really necessary to waste an hour and kick her off the plane?” somebody wrote on Douyin.
Another online observer said she had seen many economy class passengers putting their small bags on the seat during take off and were not asked to remove them.
“The flight attendant did not insist on the rule for nothing. The woman should value her safety and that of other passengers rather than the bag,” another said.
Plane passengers are required to put bags under the seat in front of them, so if there is turbulence there is no risk of them being thrown around where they might injure people or block escape routes.
The LVMH luxury group, home to brands such as Louis Vuitton and Christian Dior, reported a 13 per-cent drop in sales in Asia, excluding Japan, in the first half of this year.
However, the group’s CFO Jean-Jacques Guiony said “the Chinese customer is holding up quite well” as many travel to Japan to buy luxury goods where they are currently cheaper because of the weak yen.
