Five first-class passengers held up passengers aboard an airplane for more than an hour by grabbing the wheels of its ground support vehicle to prevent the plane from taking off Thursday at Jiangbei International airport in Chongqing.

After refusing to board without a special shuttle to transfer them from the waiting lounge to the aircraft, the handful of passengers were among hundreds of others scheduled to depart Nanning, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region for Shijiazhuang with a stopover in Chongqing on Hebei Airlines' NS3242 flight around 10 pm.

When the cabin crew decided to ignore the passengers and close the boarding gate as the other passengers requested, the first-class group rushed out onto the tarmac to stop the plane from leaving without them. Police came and took them away after an hour.

Police said the passengers were "educated" before being released and departing on another flight with the same airline, with first-class seats covered by the airline - leaving the other passengers confused about how the group was able to get such special treatment.