SIMON SANTOW: It's far from your everyday sort of protest: a group of passengers over the weekend got together to prevent a Chinese asylum seeker from being deported.

But they did this by stopping a plane from taking off.

Refugee advocates had earlier tried, and failed, to prevent the deportation by taking legal action.

Advocates say Wei Lin had been "harassed" in China because of his knowledge of the use of performance-enhancing drugs in Chinese sport.

Bridget Brennan reports.

BRIDGET BRENNAN: Sydney woman, Steph O'Donnell, was preparing for on an Air China flight to London via Beijing, when there was a commotion.

STEPH O'DONNELL: We were getting on the plane and getting settled, putting our things into the overhead compartment. We saw a man bolt down the aisle basically, and there were two big burly men chasing him, shouting out, stop that man, stop that man.

Obviously, you know, people were sort of getting barged out of the way; they were kind of looking a bit horrified. The security guards were able to catch him again; he had his arms in the air showing that they were shackled, and he was saying, this is what the government is doing. This is how they are treating people.

BRIDGET BRENNAN: Ms O'Donnell says refugee advocates had been handing out pamphlets about the man, a Chinese national named Wei Lin.

Six other passengers joined her.

They refused to sit down. Some were concerned for the Chinese man's welfare; others had fears over whether Wei Lin was properly secured on the flight.

STEPH O'DONNELL: They were talking to the Air China staff, saying that they don't feel comfortable with this man on the plane. They sort of raised it from the security point of view, saying it's not safe having this man on the plane, and if he's able to break away from security like that once, what's to say he's not going to do it again, and you know whilst we're in the air.

It was a while before we were able to get a representative from Sydney airport to come and speak with us.

BRIDGET BRENNAN: Eventually, Wei Lin was taken off the flight.

STEPH O'DONNELL: At this point, there were about seven of us that were refusing to take our seats, and we you know were quite furious that the plane did start to taxi like that when nothing had been resolved.

We were not comfortable with the situation. We did not want Wei Lin to be deported to China at all. Eventually, it was decided that we would return to the boarding gate and, once we got back to the boarding gate, then that's when the pilot announced that Wei Lin would not be staying on the flight and him and his Circo security guards were removed and their baggage was removed.

BRIDGET BRENNAN: Steph O'Donnell says Air China and Sydney Airport should have given passengers more information about why Wei Lin was on the flight.

STEPH O'DONNELL: They didn't give us any information. If Air China agreed to take this man from Sydney to China, you know, as long as they have all the facts and are still doing that, it's hard to know where that level of responsibility lies.

SIMON SANTOW: Sydney plane passenger Steph O'Donnell ending Bridget Brennan's report.