China Airlines, lover of giant flowers and 737 explosions. The airline is somewhat confusingly the flag carrier of Taiwan (not China) and it seems as I’m not the only one confused as one man forgot how to bored one of their 737’s.
CI28 was about to take off for Airai, Palau on Saturday when a man was spotted trying to climb into the landing gear in an attempt to stowaway to the Pacific Island chain. A nearby Asiana pilot spotted the Belarusian national trying to climb aboard and alerted police, the Air China flight aborted takeoff and was quickly met by police on the taxiway who arrested the man before detaining, questioning and searching him. He was found to have a gas burner, a reflective vest and multiple lighters and well as an “incomprehensible drawing”.
What’s interesting though is as of the writing of this article the man has still not been identified, no criminal record or any record of him entering Taiwan or anywhere else for that matter has been found. Taiwanese authorities are not ruling out the prospect that he entered the country illegally or with fake identification.
Passengers onboard the flight were put on another aircraft and safely departed Taipai about 3 hours late, no one was injured.
One of China Airlines many Boeing 737-800’s full image credit