More than 10 flights were interrupted at an airport in east China after a man found naked and on drugs illegally crossed into the airport perimeter, authorities said yesterday.
The man crossed a fence and managed to enter the restricted areas near the runway of the Nanchang Changbei International Airport in Jiangxi Province around 10pm on Thursday.
Eleven flights to and from the airport were delayed because the airport had to close its single runway at around 10:30pm for about 45 minutes for a police search, airport officials said.
The closure, amidst the Spring Festival travel rush, caused a flight from south China's Guangzhou City to return because it could not land at the Nanchang airport.
The intruder, who had been taking drugs, was caught at 10:44pm, authorities said.
"The man was naked, crouching inside a ditch beside the runway when the airport police found him," an official with the airport said.
The man was a villager living nearby and just had a quarrel with his family, a preliminary investigation showed.
The man was fined and detained for 20 days yesterday because he illegally crossed the airport perimeter, as well as taking drugs, authorities said.
In a similar case, an elderly villager was detained for five days after he illegally crossed fences at the airport in October. He said he just wanted to see the aircraft up close.
In another case on Thursday, police at the Beijing Capital International Airport removed six first-class passengers from a KLM Royal Dutch Airlines flight after a conflict with the flight crew.
The Chinese passengers refused to wear safety belts or turn off cell phones before takeoff and shouted at the captain and flight attendants, said Huang Guang, a passenger sitting nearby.
"They were late and made all the other passengers wait for them and then abused the flight crew," Huang told reporters.
The captain of flight KL898 from Beijing to Amsterdam refused to take off and called the police to take the six away.
Airport police removed the six passengers and the aircraft took off, according to the airport authority.
"The quarrel between the passengers and crew members was mainly because of the language barrier," airport police said. The six calmed down after being removed and switched to a later flight to the Netherlands.
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