TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Actress Sarah Wang (王棠云), wife of Hong Kong actor Shawn Yue (余文樂), has addressed a seat-switching incident on a flight, in a statement on Instagram early Saturday (Aug. 31).
The controversy began when a netizen posted about a young girl, aged 4 to 5, who took their seat on the plane. The girl's mother had even fastened the child's seatbelt, per SETN.
The original seat owner said the mother arrogantly claimed she did not know she was in the wrong seat when a flight attendant asked her to check her boarding pass. The mother offered the netizen her seat instead, saying, "If you insist on sitting in this window seat, my daughter will just keep bothering you.”
To avoid disturbing other passengers, the original seat owner eventually gave up their seat to the mother and daughter. She rhetorically asked why seat assignments mattered if people could just take any seat they wanted.
A flight attendant apologized to the woman in a handwritten letter.
The details in the post led many online commentators to suspect that Wang was involved in the incident. As a result, her social media has been filled with angry comments.
Wang took to Instagram to explain that she had not carefully checked her boarding pass upon boarding. This led her to mistakenly assume that she was seated next to her daughter, per Wang's Instagram story.
She said the flight attendant informed her of the seating error, and she politely asked the passenger next to her to switch seats. Wang explained to the passenger that she was concerned her child might disturb the passenger.
Wang clarified that she did not say phrases such as “if you insist,” or “my child will just keep bothering you.” Since the original seat holder agreed, Wang didn’t give the incident further thought.
Wang emphasized that she had not intended to force the passenger to comply. She apologized for not taking the passenger's feelings into consideration and said she would be more careful in the future.
