A 100 ml glass changed the course of an entire flight.
It was August 1, on the Wuhan-Urumqi route, and the China Southern Airlines crew served prune juice as part of the beverage service. No one warned them what that liquid contains: sorbitol, a sugar that draws water into the intestine and acts as a natural laxative. One of the passengers, unaware, mistook it for grape juice and drank it all before noticing the mistake.
What followed was a line that kept growing in front of the plane’s only two bathrooms, with more than 100 people on board waiting their turn. Some say the effect did not end after landing: they kept running to the bathroom at the airport and even at the hotel. The airline tried to downplay the matter, saying it cannot confirm everything being reported and that the photos of the queues were exaggerated. The images circulating on social media tell a different story.
