An incident occurred at an airport in southern China where a passenger opened the emergency exit door immediately after the aircraft landed.
According to local Chinese media including Zimu News, on the 11th at 8:42 a.m. local time, a Dongbang Airlines flight MU5828, which departed from Changsha, landed at Kunming Airport, and a male passenger opened the emergency exit door.
As the emergency exit was opened, the emergency evacuation slide was also deployed, but the crew responded immediately, preventing further damage. The passengers all disembarked safely about 20 minutes later.
Witnesses said that the passenger who opened the emergency exit did so thinking the indicator lights were on and wanted to feel some airflow. This passenger was detained by police immediately after the incident, and authorities are investigating the circumstances.
Media reported that depending on the aircraft type, damages from unauthorized opening of the emergency exit could range from about 100,000 yuan (about 20 million won) to 200,000 yuan (about 40 million won).
As the incident became known, the Chinese search engine Baidu listed the term 'passenger who opened the emergency door of the aircraft taken away by police' as a real-time hot keyword. The Chinese social network service (SNS) Weibo also saw the search term 'airplane safety door assassin' rank first in real-time search rankings, but related posts seem to have all disappeared, likely due to censorship.