Air China flight diverted after mentally ill man holds attendant hostage with fountain pen
No passengers or crew members were hurt in the incident
An AirChina plane bound for Beijing was forced to make an unscheduled landing yesterday after a mentally ill passenger held a fountain pen to a flight attendant’s throat and attempted to hold her hostage.
After the plane landed at the Zhengzhou Xinzheng International Airport in Henan. A contingent of security officers and troops were dispatched to deal with the situation. Earlier today, footage of the rescue operation was published online.
In that footage, the male passenger is seen squatting on the floor in the airport passageway, holding onto a female flight attendant and keeping the pen pointed at her neck.
At one point he appears to ask for water, and one of the negotiators places a glass on the floor in front of him. Meanwhile, the passenger shouts at the officers to keep their distance.
Eventually, the standoff comes to an end when three plainclothes armed police officers and one police officer rush the passenger, managing to separate him from his hostage and weapon before dragging him off the plane into a waiting police van.
You can watch the footage below:
No other passengers or crew members were harmed in the incident.
The hostage-taker has been identified as a 41-year-old man surnamed Xu from Hunan’s Anhua county with a history of mental illness. Authorities have blamed the incident on a sudden flare-up of his mental illness, it’s not clear what kind of punishment he will face.
[Images via Beijing News]
