Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi International Airport
An airplane takes off from Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi international airport, where a video of a Chinese official destroying an airport boarding gate after missing his flight went viral and led to his suspension. Reuters

Many people can sympathize with air travelers dealing with missed connections, canceled flights and lost luggage. However, people may find it hard to feel bad for Yan Linkun, a top Chinese official from Yunnan province who missed his flight twice and reacted by losing control and smashing a gate to pieces at Kunming airport -- on video, which promptly went viral.

According to TheShanghaiist.com, a Shanghai-based news blog, Yan, his wife and two children were en route to Shenzhen that morning. Yan and his family arrived at the airport with plenty of time to catch their flight but then spent time dawdling over breakfast at the airport, causing them to miss their initial flight. The family was later switched to an afternoon flight but managed to arrive at the boarding gate too late for a second time.

What followed was a gradually enraged Yan, yelling at the boarding desk employee, until finally erupting into a berserk rage and destroying all items in his view as police officials stood and watched.

No efforts were made to stop Yan by officials, his family or any of the dozens of onlookers. And even after the rampage, lasting several minutes, including an attempt to break the airport's boarding gate doors with a sign, Yan was never arrested.

However, China’s netizens on Weibo, a Twitter-like social media platform, quickly identified Yan and made the video go viral, demanding attention from the official.

Yan has since released an apology, saying he “failed to be a qualified political adviser, as well as a good father.

“My irrational actions and rudeness have caused some losses to the airport, as well as bad effects to the public, so I sincerely apologize to the airport and public. I am willing to compensate,” his statement read.

According to the Global Times, Yan has since been suspended as further investigations are conducted.