ZURICH, SWITZERLAND – The two passengers who were fighting on the floor of a Swiss Zurich to Beijing flight, forcing the plane to turn around and head back to Switzerland, were released Monday, according to Xinhua news. The two are reportedly Chinese and a video of the older of the two, a 57-year-old man who was tied up in a seat at the back of the plane after the incident, circulated widely on Weibo, a Chinese video site. The man, whom other passengers said was drunk, was given a 90-day fine in Zurich.
“The fight was widely circulated on Sina Weibo, with many netizens writing that the incident was humiliating and damaged China’s image,” reports China’s Global Times web site.
The fight appears to have broken out after a 29-year-old man put his seat back and the older man, in the seat behind him complained and then hit the younger man when he refused to move. It is unclear if both passengers were drunk at the time.
Flight LX196 did not land in Moscow because of visa issues and flew back to Zurich, spending some seven hours in the air.
