China Southern Airlines Flight 6901 attempted bombing

The China Southern Airlines Flight 6901 attempted bombing refers to an attempted aircraft bombing that took place in the People's Republic of China on 7 March 2008; no one was injured in this incident. The incident was later determined to be a premeditated, organised, politically motivated attempted terrorist attack by an international terrorist organisation. The flight was scheduled to fly from Ürümqi to Beijing; about 35 minutes after take-off, a Uyghur woman went into the lavatory and did not come out for a long time; later, because a smell of gasoline came from the lavatory, the crew became alert and subdued her, and it was then found that the drink cans she had taken into the lavatory contained a mixture of gasoline and perfume (another account says the woman was subdued after she left the lavatory and the smell of gasoline on her was noticed); another male passenger on the same flight was also considered a suspect and subdued. Afterwards the crew received a reward of 400,000 yuan (RMB).

Course of the incident

On 7 March 2008, a 19-year-old young Uyghur woman, Guzalinur Turdi, entered the departure hall through the business VIP security channel at Ürümqi Diwopu International Airport, Xinjiang, and boarded the aircraft. She was carrying a bottle of mineral water and two cans of drink. At the security check she opened the mineral water and took two sips; the security officer, seeing that she was a young girl, relaxed his vigilance and did not make her open the cans, but the cans contained gasoline, and perfume had also been mixed in to mask the smell of gasoline. At 10:35 am, the aircraft took off from Ürümqi for Beijing; at around 11:10, a stewardess smelled gasoline from the direction of the lavatory and found Guzalinur Turdi looking panic-stricken. The crew restrained her and found on her the cans containing gasoline. At 12:40 the aircraft made an emergency landing at Lanzhou Zhongchuan Airport. There were no casualties.

In addition, a middle-aged man on this flight was responsible for monitoring the woman's actions, and he too was subsequently restrained. After flight CZ6901 diverted to Lanzhou, because the passengers of the subsequent flight CZ6902 were stranded in Beijing, China Southern sent an Airbus A330 managed by its Beijing branch to operate flight CZ6902 in place of China Southern's Xinjiang branch.