Passenger kicked off Japan flight after refusing to wear face mask & yelling

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The plane made an unscheduled landing where he was forced off the flight.

Andrew Koay | September 10, 2020, 05:22 PM
     
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A passenger aboard a domestic Japanese flight has caused quite the ruckus by refusing to wear a face mask.

The Sep. 7 flight operated by budget carrier Peach Aviation saw the man threatening cabin crew and yelling at passengers who didn't want to sit near him, reported NHK.

The man was first spotted without a mask by cabin crew before the flight departed from Kushiro in Hokkaido for Kansai Airport in Western Japan.

A video uploaded to YouTube appears to show the man arguing with the flight attendants.

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According to The Japan Times, he was asked to don a mask but refused, and began threatening crew members when they handed him a warning notice.

They then asked passengers sitting in close proximity to the man to move to seats further away, so as to minimise the risk of a Covid-19 infection spreading.

Take-off was delayed by about 45 minutes due to the seat swapping, reported The Asahi Shimbun.

Eventually kicked off the flight
Even after the plane departed, the man continued yelling and berating passengers, ignoring flight attendants who attempted to calm him down.

The plane's captain eventually judged that the man was compromising the safety of the flight and performed an unscheduled landing at Niigata Airport, where the uncompliant passenger was offloaded.

The flight eventually made it to its destination two hours and 15 minutes late.

According to Japan Today, airline officials plan on seeking 500,000 yen (S$6,400) compensation from him for disrupting the flight and inconveniencing its crew and 124 passengers.

“We can ask passengers to wear face masks but we cannot force them to do so,” an airline official was quoted by The Asahi Shimbun as saying.

"We cannot refuse passengers from boarding even if they don’t wear one. On this occasion, the passenger disrupted the flight, so we forced him to get off."

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