Air China Flight 4107 dispute incident

The Air China supervisor Niu Yuhong false accusation of passengers incident, also reported by some media as the "Air China supervisor first-class cabin disturbance incident", was an incident on 12 July 2019 in the first-class cabin of Air China flight CA4107 from Chengdu to Beijing, in which Niu Yuhong, an employee of the Air China cabin services department office, claiming to be an Air China "supervisor", rudely berated passengers and disturbed public order, and in the end passengers she had falsely accused were investigated and detained.

Course of events

On 13 July 2019, Li Yaling (a screenwriter and former journalist), a passenger who had also travelled in first class on flight CA4107, disclosed on Sina Weibo that on the flight on 12 July 2019, as the aircraft was taxiing out of its stand at Chengdu Shuangliu Airport, a female passenger had not switched off her phone in time because she was on a call; after a flight attendant reminded her she continued the call, only switching off her phone after an announcement on the aircraft. But after the announcement, a woman claiming to be an Air China supervisor (i.e. Niu Yuhong) suddenly stood up and rudely berated the female passenger who had just switched off her phone, and accused two other male passengers who had used their phones during taxiing of "endangering aviation safety"; after flight attendants confirmed that the male passengers had switched on flight mode, they were still loudly berated by Niu; yet Niu Yuhong herself did not fasten her seat belt and made phone calls during taxiing, falsely accused passengers, still walked about the cabin before the aircraft landed, repeatedly asking the cabin crew whether the police had been called, and after landing even notified the airport police, resulting in the passengers being investigated and detained for 7 hours.

Once the incident was exposed, it provoked a wave of online condemnation of Niu Yuhong and Air China, and many media outlets including The Beijing News, Sina, Beijing Daily and Jiemian News followed it.

On the afternoon of 13 July, Air China promptly replied on Weibo that Air China did not employ supervisors, but later deleted this reply.

On the evening of 13 July, the head of the relevant Air China department telephoned the passenger who had exposed the incident to apologise, saying there were unavoidable difficulties and problems, but that the specific circumstances could not be disclosed, and promising a face-to-face meeting on Monday (15 July) to resolve it.

On the evening of 14 July, Air China's head of publicity, Xu Yanchun, said that Niu Yuhong was not a so-called supervisor but merely an ordinary employee. She had formerly been a flight attendant but, because she suffered from a mental illness, had not worked for a fairly long period, although her employment contract had not been terminated. The following evening, Air China responded on Weibo that Niu Yuhong was an Air China employee on leave for health reasons and was travelling privately on this occasion. Air China also arranged to meet Li Yaling regarding the incident for further communication and expressed its apologies, but could not pay compensation. However, Li Yaling said she could not accept Air China's reply, would continue to pursue her rights through legal channels, and did not approve of the disclosure of Niu Yuhong's illness.

Because during Li Yaling's dealings with Air China, the Air China side stated that Niu Yuhong had a mental illness, and Li Yaling later published this information on Weibo, Niu Yuhong considered this act to be a tort of fabricating facts and claimed 1.046 million yuan in compensation for mental damage from Li. The case was heard in court on 10 September 2021.