Han Ximin, Wei Ye, Xiao Ke

    ximhan@126.com

    THE nine crew members on flight ZH9648 of Shenzhen Airlines were awarded a total of 2.5 million yuan (US$397,000) from authorities for successfully responding to an arson attempt and protecting passengers July 26.

    Two passengers, who aided the crew in subduing a knife-wielding passenger attempting to set fire to the flight from Taizhou in Zhejiang Province to Guangzhou, were each awarded 150,000 yuan, Shenzhen Airlines said at an awarding ceremony yesterday.

    The awards for the crew included 600,000 yuan from Air China, the mother company of Shenzhen Airlines, 900,000 yuan from China National Aviation Holding Company and 1 million yuan from Shenzhen Airlines.

    Earlier on July 26, the crew also received a shared award of 300,000 yuan and the two passengers were each awarded 30,000 yuan from the Civil Aviation Administration of China.

    The incident happened on the early morning of July 26 when the flight carrying 97 passengers was landing at Guangzhou’s airport.

    A passenger named Zhai Jinshun, a native of Taizhou, managed to smuggle a lighter and gasoline on board and attempted to light a fire during the flight. Zhai was overpowered by the crew and the two passengers.

    The flight proceeded as usual all the way until Dong Xueqiong, one of the flight attendants, smelled gasoline at the back of the cabin and reported it to the head stewardess Zhou Chenfei.

    They found traces of a suspicious liquid in a locker above Row 25 and immediately reported it to security inspectors Wang Haopeng and Du Fu. When the two approached the back of the cabin, the man in seat 25C, who was later identified as Zhai, suddenly rose from his seat and strolled to the front of the economy area and began trying to light a fire.

    Dong immediately attempted to calm down passengers by shouting “Pleased be seated, please trust us. We are capable of handling this,” while trying to offer help.

    Zhou, who was in the middle of broadcasting for the flight landing, immediately took a fire extinguisher from the service room and rushed towards the man, who had used gasoline and a lighter to set fire to two curtains separating the economy class and the business class.

    Another stewardess, Zhang Xiaocong, also rushed to help with a large bottle of coca cola.

    Zhai was later pacified by security inspectors, the crew members and the two passengers who offered to help. Security inspector Wang and passenger Zhang Xuemei were slightly injured in the scuffle.