Passenger Criticized for Berating China Airlines Crew Over Language Issue

A passenger is facing public scrutiny after she was caught on video berating China Airlines cabin crew members for not speaking Japanese.

The incident occurred on June 4, 2023, just before the China Airlines flight took off from Fukuoka Airport (FUK) to Taipei’s Taoyuan International Airport (TPE).

The video was originally uploaded to Twitter but has now gone viral on other social media channels such as TikTok.

The passenger can be heard yelling in English, “I’m very upset! China Airlines, what are you guys doing? Do you speak only Chinese?”

China Airlines is the state-owned flag carrier of Taiwan, where the national language is Mandarin.

“I’m Japanese here, why don’t you guys speak in Japan [sic]?” the woman continued.

Passengers also tried to intervene, with one attempting to translate the passenger’s rants to cabin crew.

The woman’s rampage caused a 40-minute delay to the flight, and Taiwan news outlet TVBS news received confirmation from China Airlines that the passenger was eventually escorted out of the aircraft and handed over to airport police.

On June 5, 2023, Twitter user @Marizmful identified herself as the passenger on the video and apologized for “yelling at everyone”, before adding that all she’d wanted was a glass of water and she had been ignored.

Several netizens were not impressed with the passenger’s behavior, with one Twitter user saying “You give Japanese people a bad name, Karen-san.”

On TikTok, another user commented that Karens are universal.