China flight delayed as passenger's sugar glider causes chaos onboard

A video shared by a netizen on Weibo, China's largest social media platform, showed the passenger brought a sugar glider onboard flight MU5599 on Monday but the pet caused disturbance within the cabin, China Daily reported.

All passengers were required to disembark as flight attendants scrambled to find the pet.

The incident sparked outrage among passengers who asked to call the police to handle the passenger’s violations, Global Times reported.

After more than an hour’s delay, the flight took off and arrived at Yaoxiang airport in Jinan before midnight.

The passenger was quickly detained by police for disrupting order on public transportation and violating aviation regulations.

Under China’s civil aviation regulations, passengers must declare pets, provide quarantine certificates, and obtain carrier approval before travel. Pets must also undergo designated check-in processes and cannot be carried onto the aircraft by passengers themselves.

Police are investigating how the sugar glider got onto the plane.