Fri, Nov 18, 2011 | AsiaOne
Auxiliary and airport police officers discharged their duties professionally in restoring order, said a spokesperson for the police who was responding to a protested staged by travellers at Changi Airport on Tuesday.
A group of Chinese national travellers alleged that police 'assaulted' them while they were blocking a passageway at the airport to protest the 9-hour delay of a Hong Kong Airlines flight from Singapore to Hong Kong.
They later claimed that the police officers had 'assaulted' and even threatened them with their handcuffs and weapons.
A spokesperson from the airline said that security camera footage of the incident showed that Singaporean ground staff had acted appropriately to the situation.
According to the statement from the Singapore Police Force, they had received a call for assistance from Changi Airport Group Customer Service Officer manning the Terminal 2 Information Counter.
The police was told that there was 'rowdy boisterous behaviour from a group of frustrated passengers over issues of compensation they had with their airline arising from a flight delay'.
"Several members of the Auxiliary Police who were in the vicinity, interfered to get the crowd to remain calm and to co-operate with airline representatives. When Airport Police officers arrived, they assisted the Auxiliary Police to restore order," wrote the spokesperson.
"The CCTV also showed that Auxiliary Police officers who were engaging the passengers did not use a trolley to push it into the group.
"A female Auxiliary Police officer was in fact, seen drawing her handcuffs when a section of the group began to taunt her.
"Both Auxiliary and Airport Police officers discharged their duties professionally in restoring order and have ensured that airport operations at the terminal were not interrupted," said the statement.
Police investigations into the incident are ongoing.
Continued to protest in Hong Kong
The Chinese passengers were reported to have continued their protest in Hong Kong International Airport, by refusing to get off the plane when it landed.
The protest sparked off when the Airbus 330 carrying 159 passengers had been delayed in Singapore for almost nine hours due to a technical fault, The South China Morning Post reported.
The airline could not be reached for comment but a spokeswoman told The South China Morning Post that the passengers had been offered meals and drinks at Singapore while another aircraft was prepared.
When the plane landed in Hong Kong at around 5.30am on Nov 16, 80 of the 159 passengers staged a sit-in and refused to leave the aircraft. The airline's offer of HK$400 (S$67) to compensate each passenger was rejected and more money was demanded.
Fifty nine passengers gave up their sit-in and left the aircraft at 9:00 am but the remaining 21 - including a tour group from Shenzhen and four travellers from Hong Kong - remained on board. Ninety minutes later they agreed to disembark, but they continued their protest inside the airport.
The protest finally ended around 1:30pm when the airline reportedly raised their compensation to HK$1,200 each.
"The amount of the compensation is not important. Their (Hong Kong Airlines) attitude was very poor," one of the passengers from mainland China was quoted as telling Hong Kong's iCable TV.
- Ref:asiaone,
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