Hong Kong Express flight UO272, scheduled to depart for Changzhou on January 28 at 5:40 PM, was delayed for over 3 hours due to a female passenger claiming there was an explosive device on board and demanding to disembark. Some passengers chose to leave the plane out of panic.
According to a post by a netizen, the female passenger was seated in front of them and suddenly claimed something had fallen underneath the aircraft as it entered the runway, alleging there was an explosive device that was going to detonate, and insisted on deplaning. “Witnesses said that the passenger had duct tape covering her phone camera, which was quite unusual.”
A viral video showed the chaos inside the plane at that moment, leading to the aircraft returning to the gate. After passengers deplaned, the flight underwent a security inspection.
The individual who shared the video commented in the discussion section that the flight safely arrived at Changzhou Airport at 11:45 PM, resulting in a delay of over 3 hours with a quarter of the passengers too frightened to continue the journey. “The woman involved was immediately taken away by the police.”
On January 29, the Hong Kong Express Airlines public relations department responded to Modern Express, stating that during taxiing at Hong Kong International Airport, a passenger on flight UO272 made an emergency request, prompting the aircraft to return to the gate following standard procedures for safety inspection before resuming the journey after meeting all safety standards.
It was reported that on the evening of the 28th, the flight took off at 9:20 PM and landed in Changzhou at 11:24 PM.