Chinese netizens were outraged yesterday to hear of a government official who allegedly hit and threatened a China Southern Airlines flight attendant because of a simple dispute over where he should have placed his suitcase.

An air stewardess on flight CZ3874 from Hefei to Guangzhou, tweeting from her Sina Weibo account (@花Money买毛豆), wrote that a man beat, insulted and scratched her after being told that his luggage couldn’t be put as he desired.

That man turned out to be Fang Daguo, member of the Communist Party Standing Committee of Yuexiu District of Guangdong and political commissar of the district’s armed forces department, according to Li Wei’ao, a journalist with Caijing magazine.

The stewardess added Fang, together with his wife and child, carried a number of large suitcases on board and were told that these could not be fit into the already-crammed overhead compartments at the back of the plane. Fang Daguo then ordered her to move away some recreation devices to make room for his suitcases. She told Fang that these devices were already fastened to the compartment and could not be moved.

It was then that Fang began his verbal assaults and hit the stewardess until the chief flight attendant arrived and managed to separate them. Fang then threatened the crew that he knew the boss of China Southerin Airlines and was a member of the People’s Congress.

It is also reported that Fang called two military cars to threaten the flight crew.

The chief flight attendant said, in order to avoid punishment, Fang’s wife scratched her own arm and then blamed the stewardess for starting the violence. She also ordered her child to tell police that it was the stewardess that began hitting his mother.

Chen Xiaodan, director of the Publicity Department, Yuexiu District, said the military and the police were now on the case and that the results of the investigation would be released soon.



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