Man escorted off M'sia Airlines flight to Beijing after allegedly inappropriately touching flight attendant

A passenger on a Malaysia Airlines flight was escorted off the plane by security after he allegedly inappropriately touched a female flight attendant.

The incident happened in Kuala Lumpur, before the plane took off to Beijing, past midnight on Apr. 8.

An argument ensued, in which he questioned if he had done anything wrong, as seen in a video circulating online.

"I just lightly patted you twice, and you won't let me take the plane?" he said to a flight attendant who appeared to be the supposed victim.

"That's considered light?" she countered, and said firmly that he cannot continue on the flight because his attitude was unreasonably difficult.

Argument

While still seated, the passenger raised his voice as he questioned the accusation against him.

"This counts as sexual harassment? Even in Singapore, this wouldn't count as sexual harassment, right?" he asked.

The flight attendant then asked him to please respect the rules there.

When he asked again whether his actions counted as sexual harassment, she replied that that was for her to say.

She later told him that the airport would not allow him to continue taking this flight.

The passenger repeatedly insisted that it was "not [his] problem", and said that asking him to change flights now would create trouble for him.

He also requested to see any CCTV footage to prove he was right.

The flight attendant stood her ground and seemed to tell him that he knew very well what he did.

Among his other arguments was that "China-Malaysia relations are very good".

In the end, he was grabbed by two security officers up out of his seat and escorted down the aisle.

Witness did not see what happened

The passenger is a Chinese national, according to the man who recorded the video and posted it on social media.

The man who took the video is apparently a Malaysian tour leader for a travel company.

In his post, which is no longer available, he clarified that he did not witness the alleged touching himself, but added that emotions do not arise without reason.

Pre-boarding issues created chaos

Ye explained that there were some technical issues that affected the boarding process, and he himself felt frustrated by the way the ground staff had handled the situation.

Some passengers' seats had been changed, so they could not access the boarding gate with their boarding passes, he said.

The scene was total chaos, and the ground staff was slow in processing the new boarding passes, according to Ye.

Many Chinese passengers appeared helpless as they could not understand what was happening, and no one helped to translate.

According to the tracking status of the flight MH318, the departure was delayed by about an hour, from 11:40pm to 12:41am.

Top images from Duncan Ye, via 双喜头本红抱枕/Facebook