Four incidents of unruly air passengers, including a woman who carried knife aboard a plane and people filming dangerous TikTok trends, have gone viral and caused outrage.
Lowering window shade to record landing, takeoff
Many young people enjoy recording videos, especially the dreamlike footage shot through a plane window.
Some Tiktokers promote a so-called “travel hack” in which a phone is placed between the window and shade during takeoff and landing to shoot videos.
With this becoming a trend, crew members and aviation experts are flabbergasted and warn about the dangers it poses.
Regulations require the window shades to be raised during takeoff and landing to ensure the crew can see outside in the event of an emergency, and passengers who lower the shade are evidently violating them. Takeoff and landing are the most dangerous times during a flight.
Furthermore, keeping a phone on the window jeopardizes aviation safety since recording for an extended period of time cause batteries to heat up, more so if the sun is shining, and can result in fires.
Dancing near a moving plane
On July 12, a video of a woman approaching a moving plane and dancing on the runway sparked outrage online. Many panned her being reckless and endangering her life as well as that of hundreds of passengers on the plane.
The incident occurred in June at Phu Quoc Airport.
The woman was on a bus ferrying passengers from the terminal to their aircraft, and dashed out of the bus as soon as its doors opened to dance and shoot the video.
An airport official approached her and told her to return to a safe location.
Only authorized airport personnel are permitted on runways and aprons since aircraft engines have enormous suction and could easily suck in a person.
Bringing a knife aboard plane
n July 18, on Vietnam Airlines flight VN208 from HCMC to Hanoi, cabin crew discovered an elderly female passenger using a knife about 20 cm long to peel fruits. They confiscated it immediately.
Regulations prohibit passengers from carrying razors, paper knives and knives with blades of 6 cm or total length of 10 cm in their cabin baggage.
Violations attract fines of VND7-10 million ($298-426).
A security official at HCMC’s Tan Son Nhat Airport was suspended.
Sitting on baggage carousel
In late July, a video of a girl sitting on the luggage conveyor belt went viral on social media and drew flak. The girl was reportedly flying from Con Dao Island to HCMC.
This may not endanger aviation safety but could easily have damaged equipment, disrupting airport operations, and making it difficult for other passengers to pick up their baggage.
Source: VnExpress
