A group of Chinese-speaking passengers say that they weren’t informed of the cancellation of their Jetstar Japan flight to Shanghai. However, it transpired that the announcement was made only in Japanese. Disgruntled passengers clashed with airport staff and claim that they weren’t given food.
A group of Chinese travelers were unwittingly left stranded at Tokyo’s Narita International Airport (NRT) last week thanks to an insurmountable language barrier, the Daily Mail reports.
The incident, which swiftly saw general confusion turn to scuffles with airport police, occurred on January 24, when the 175 passengers who were due to depart for Shanghai on Jetstar Japan Flight GK35 were unaware that their journey had been canceled. The Chinese-speaking travelers claimed that the carrier did not inform them of the cancellation. However, it soon emerged that the cancellation announcement was made in Japanese, and so the group continued to wait for their flight.
The passengers, who were due to depart from NRT at 10:15 p.m. local time, say that Jetstar Japan did not provide food or emergency accommodation. The situation deteriorated when one of the passengers was apparently stopped by a member of airport staff while he was trying to purchase snacks from a vending machine at NRT.
This apparently aroused the ire of other travelers, who began to argue with airport staff as well as with airport police. A video of the incident shows disgruntled passengers confronting police and one man was reported to have been arrested during the fracas. The Chinese embassy in Tokyo, which issued an official statement regarding the incident, also confirmed that it sent staff to help bring passengers under control.
However, Jetstar Japan says that it did, in fact, provide the stranded travelers with water, meal vouchers and sleeping bags. The carrier did not clarify exactly when it made these provisions to passengers, all of whom did eventually arrive back in Shanghai in the early hours of the January 26. The carrier later issued an apology to passengers via a statement posted on Weibo.
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