During the National Day holiday, a China Lucky Air flight scheduled to depart from Beijing to Osaka, Japan at 4:20 pm on October 2 was delayed for over 13 hours due to “equipment failure,” with three planes failing to take off as planned. It wasn’t until the following morning of October 3 that the passengers of the flight finally arrived in Osaka.
On October 2, a netizen posted a video claiming that the Lucky Air flight HO1625 from Beijing to Osaka, originally scheduled to depart at 16:20, had to switch planes twice but still couldn’t take off. Later, another netizen asked in the comments of the video, “Have you arrived in Osaka?” to which the netizen replied, “No, we are waiting for the fourth plane to come pick us up.”
According to the “Air Travel Vertical” app, flight HO1625 eventually took off at 6:25 am on the 3rd and arrived in Osaka at 9:44 am local time, a delay of 13 hours and 24 minutes.
As reported by mainland media Jímù Xīnwén, a passenger stated that the flight was supposed to depart at 4:20 pm on the 2nd and arrive at 8:20 pm local time. However, upon arrival, the flight faced equipment malfunctions preventing it from taking off. At 5:30 pm, the airline replaced it with a flight from Shanghai to Beijing to continue the journey, but after the passengers reached the shuttle, they were informed that the plane too was unable to take off due to issues. Then, at 11:30 pm that night, passengers were notified to board again, but the third plane also experienced malfunctions preventing take-off.
In response, Lucky Air customer service stated on the afternoon of the 3rd that the system displayed the delay reason as “delay due to company reasons,” with the specific cause remaining uncertain. Compensation in cash was provided to passengers on-site at the airport for the losses incurred due to the delay.
The incident has sparked attention online.
Some netizens questioned, “Several planes in a row facing malfunctions, can this be trusted? If the airline poses such significant safety risks, it might as well shut down. Who would dare to take flights in the future, and afterwards, passengers are unwilling to foot a single penny for hotel expenses.”
Another netizen mentioned, “Two planes bound for Guilin from Nanjing also failed to take off, and in the end, they had to switch to other airlines.” “On the morning of September 13, I was flying to a certain destination from a certain airport with a major airline. After the shuttle bus made a big round back to the terminal, an announcement was made that the plane had mechanical issues that needed to be resolved. After some back and forth, a new plane was used. These kinds of incidents seem to be increasing, even if we know the reasons, we dare not speak of them.”