Three Chinese tourists delay dozens of flights at Japanese airport after skipping security checks
Women wandered into secure areas looking for duty-free shops, according to Japanese media
PUBLISHED : Wednesday, 11 March, 2015, 4:08pm
UPDATED : Wednesday, 11 March, 2015, 4:08pm
[email protected]
Staff dealing with disruption at Naha airport. Photo: SCMP Pictures
Three women from China caused an airport in Japan to shut down its security gates for about an hour and dozens of flights to be delayed after they wandered into secure areas without going through checks.
The women were waiting for a connecting flight to Tokyo at Naha Airport in Okinawa when they wandered off looking for duty-free stores and ended up in the baggage reclaim area and at the departure gates, the Ryuku Shimpo newspaper reported.
The airport authority discovered the security breach and made 6,300 passengers retake security checks, five flights were grounded and 25 others delayed, the report said.
No details were given about the three women involved.
The incident on Monday is the latest case of Chinese tourists making headlines for odd and sometimes rude behaviour.
These include a passenger who opened the emergency door on an aircraft at an airport in Nanjing last month to get a breath of fresh air. The flight was delayed for an hour.
A airliner flying from Bangkok to Nanjing was forced to turn back in December after a Chinese passenger threw hot water over a cabin attendant because she did not like the service.
The incident in Japan has drawn heated discussion on social media in China, with some saying the women were an embarrassment to the country.
“They should be banned from travelling abroad,” one person wrote.
The government’s State Tourism Administration said in January it would compile a database of badly behaved tourists and circulate it to travel companies.
Japan has become one of the top destinations for tourists from China in recent years due to relaxed visa requirements, strong exchange rates and Chinese shoppers love of high-quality Japanese products.
