Upset by a delayed flight, two passengers, one a tour guide, decided to open emergency exit doors as the plane was taxiing, forcing it to abort takeoff and landing them in detention instead, police said yesterday.

The latest in a growing number of air rage cases involving Chinese travelers happened in the early hours of Saturday in the southwestern city of Kunming after China Eastern flight MU2036 had been delayed by a snow storm for several hours.

Angry passengers complained about the delay and a lack of ventilation, and the Beijing travel agency guide, surnamed Li, then encouraged a passenger surnamed Zhou to open three emergency doors while the plane was taxiing to the main runway.

Another passenger was telling passengers the flight was not safe to take off in such bad weather.

A total of 25 passengers were held for questioning while the rest continued on to Beijing on a separate flight.

Police said the tour guide and Zhou had been placed under 15-day “administrative detention” for opening the doors.

The Boeing 738 was due to take off from Kunming at 8:45pm on Friday and arrive in Beijing around midnight on Saturday, but passengers were allowed to board the plane up to midnight because of snow at the airport, police said.

After requesting they be allowed off the plane for health reasons, some passengers “opened three emergency doors in an attempt to stop the flight,” forcing the plane to return to the terminal, Xinhua news agency cited a passenger as saying.

Air-conditioning switched off

The passenger said those on board were worried about a crew member’s ability to control himself after he “swore and cursed.”

The plane had already been delayed for several hours before they boarded, only to face further delays while ice was cleared from the aircraft, Xinhua said.

The air-conditioning was switched off for the ice removal, but one woman said she began to feel uncomfortable and many other passengers asked to be allowed out for air.

China Eastern said air-conditioning has to be switched for ice removal to prevent the chemicals affecting passengers.

When the ice was removed and the plane began to taxi to the runway, the three emergency doors were suddenly opened, and the aircraft had to return, police said.

“The captain shouted at passengers and took no care of some passengers who had shown symptoms of breathlessness,” one of the passengers posted online.

China Eastern yesterday denied any inappropriate behavior on the part of crew members.

“The crew had been apologizing to passengers about the delay and had no quarrels with any passenger,” the airline’s Yunnan branch said in a statement.

Zhang Jilin, a spokesman for the National Tourism Administration, said it backed the police decision to detain two of the passengers, and said the travel agency that employed the guide would face punishment.

Last month a flight from Thailand to China was forced to return to Bangkok after a passenger threw hot water at a cabin attendant.

Chinese media reports branded four unruly passengers on board as ”barbarians.”

An airport in Kunming saw chaotic scenes in 2013, when thousands of angry passengers were stranded for hours after heavy fog delayed flights.

Passengers stuck at the airport for more than a day struggled with airline staff, damaging computer equipment belonging to an airline, while police broke up scuffles.