More than 90 Chinese passengers who flew Japan Airlines are planning to sue the firm for almost US$90,000 each for leaving them in an airport without food and water for several hours.

They are also considering suing for alleged racial discrimination, saying they were treated differently from other passengers.

They took a Japan Airline's plane from Beijing to Tokyo on January 27, and claim the company left them at Osaka airport for 16 hours without giving them anything to eat or drink after the plane was diverted because of snow.

They are each demanding compensation of 10 million yen (US$86,000).

Furthermore, they are also suing for racial discrimination as Chinese mainland passengers were allegedly treated differently from those passengers who were not from the Chinese mainland.

Li Jie, one of the Chinese mainland passengers, was on the plane heading for the United States via Tokyo. He was quoted by Wednesday's China Business Times as saying that all passengers from outside the Chinese mainland were given hotels or transferred to Tokyo by train that evening.

But the passengers from the Chinese mainland were forced to stay in the waiting hall the entire night, and apart from a small sandwich at about 3 o'clock in the morning, no water or food was provided, Li said.

He said it was written on their tickets that passengers should have a night in a hotel and meals if they are going on somewhere else with the airline the next day.

But the airline did not abide by this.

"There were no seats in the waiting hall and we just sat or lay on the ground for a rest," Li recalled.

Flight JL782 left Beijing for Tokyo at 3pm on the afternoon of January 27, and should have landed in Tokyo at 6pm. Heavy snow there meant the plane was forced to land instead in Osaka, at about 8pm that evening. All Chinese passengers were ushered to a waiting hall after nearly three hours of waiting in the plane, while all Japanese passengers and Westerners were permitted to leave the airport.

"When they found two Westerners and four people from Taiwan were in our group, airport officials permitted them to leave, but ordered us to stay quietly," Li was quoted as saying.

He said the Chinese mainland passengers told airport officials their passports allowed them to have 72 hours in Japan, but they were still not allowed to leave the airport.

The stewardess from Japan Airlines who had led them to the waiting hall did not appear again until the next morning.

The passengers eventually flew to Tokyo the next afternoon.

Li Jie was urged by other passengers to act as their representative and see to suing the airline when he returned home.

The Beijing office of Japan Airlines said it knew about the complaint and was investigating.

Aoyama Tomohide, the chief representative of the firm in China, said the results of the investigation would be made public as soon as possible.

He said Japan Airlines attached great importance to Chinese passengers, and said the firm wanted to talk to the passengers involved face to face to try to solve any problems.

(China Daily 02/16/2001)