Two passengers on a domestic flight in China between Guiyong and Shanghai have faced fierce backlash from Chinese social media users after a video was posted of them online locking a crying toddler in an airplane bathroom in an attempt to ‘educate’ them.
The incident occurred aboard a Juneyao Airlines flight on August 24 when the crying toddler refused to calm down, prompting the intervention of two unrelated women who offered to help the boy’s grandmother.
In order to ‘educate’ the youngster, the two women took the child into one of the airplane’s bathrooms and told him that he wouldn’t be allowed out until he stopped crying.
The incident went viral when one of the two women involved posted a video online of them taking the one-year-old boy into the bathroom. The response she received, however, may not have been what she was expecting.
Faced with mounting backlash over the incident, Juneyao Airlines was forced to launch an investigation and it turns out that what happened to the toddler was done with the permission of his grandmother with whom he was traveling.
“In order to avoid disturbing other passengers, with the consent of his grandmother, two passengers took the child to the restroom to educate him,” the statement from the airline explained.
“During this process, the child’s grandmother went with him and waited at the restroom door.”
The statement continued: “We have verified the situation with the child’s mother over the phone. She said she had learned the full story from her mother and expressed her understanding of the two passengers’ assistance onboard”.
The BBC reports that the phenomenon of what the Chinese call ‘Bear Children’ has become an increasingly divisive subject in China, with a growing debate over how children should be disciplined if they throw a tantrum in public.
There is an airline carrier called China Airlines.
Your title makes it confusing as it seems that’s the actual airline company.
A better phrasing would be “A Chinese airline passenger…”