She apparently got upset after a passenger filmed her speaking on the phone before take-off.
April 22, 2026, 07:12 PM
A woman was removed from an AirAsia flight en route from Chongqing, China to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on Apr. 22 for causing a scene before take-off.
Videos of the incident were shared online by a fellow passenger who filmed the commotion.
The videos were reposted on X.
“我是 China‼️” (I am China‼️)
Apr 22: another Chinese passenger making a scene on an international flight and causing a significant delay… this took place on the AirAsia D7809 Chongqing to Kuala Lumpur flight after boarding but before takeoff (scheduled for 2am) in Chongqing.… pic.twitter.com/O9ds6M4hV5
— Byron Wan (@Byron_Wan) April 22, 2026
AirAsia flight D7809 was scheduled to take off from Chongqing at around 2:10am, as per Flight Radar 24.
It eventually departed at 3:47am following a delay.
Said she was a flight attendant
The woman who got removed reportedly identified herself as a China Southern Airlines crew member, according to Sin Chew Daily.
She apparently got upset after a fellow passenger filmed her speaking on the phone before take-off.
The woman wanted the passenger to delete the clip and apologise, even though she admitted she was talking loudly when she was speaking on the phone.
But she also said there was nothing wrong with using the phone before take-off.
She said, “What did I do wrong?”
“The internet will naturally cut off when the plane takes off, and I won’t be able to make a call then. But he took out his phone to film a video of me,” she continued.
The passenger who took the video refused to delete it.
Intervention
A flight attendant then approached the woman and spoke to her in English.
This apparently set the woman off again, as she felt she could not understand what was being communicated and felt that the personnel should have spoken Mandarin.
The woman added, “When I tried communicating with him, he kept speaking to me in English. I’m Chinese. Why is he always speaking to me in English? How can someone working on an international flight not even speak the most basic Mandarin? What kind of service industry is this?”
Another staff spoke Mandarin
Another staff member then approached the woman and spoke to her in Mandarin.
The woman then asked why she was being asked to disembark and demanded compensation for her losses as her trip was being disrupted.
The staff then explained that she was disrupting the flight, and the passenger demanded to know what laws she had violated.
The woman continued to demand a resolution while refusing to disembark.
Chinese police intervene
Chinese police were then seen on the plane.
They urged the woman to calm down and asked the other passengers not to film anymore.
The woman was eventually led off the plane.
Before she left, she requested the passenger who filmed the incident to send it to her as evidence.
Top photos via @aikren