China United Airlines Denies Two of Its Pilots Brawled During a Flight

A Chinese airline has been punished for safety violations, according to a news website, but the carrier has denied that one offence involved two of its pilots brawling during a flight.

China United Airlines said in a statement that there had been "physical contact" between two pilots over a "misunderstanding" about a work dispute during a flight, but denied they had fought and that one had suffered a head injury.

The Civil Aviation Administration of China has meted out punishments to the carrier, including for the incident on a flight on June 14, the aviation website Civil Aviation Resource Net said.

Another aviation news service, Hangkong Wuyu, had earlier reported that two pilots had come to blows and one had suffered injuries that caused their head to bleed.

The carrier's statement said: "China United Airlines places great importance on the civil aviation authority notice and has started special inspections and carried out corrective work."

"Regarding the June 14 incident about physical clash of crew mentioned in the notice, it was out of a misunderstanding over work disputes between two pilots."

"There was no brawl and media reports about crew beating each other and inflicting bleeding through head injuries were untrue."

No more details were given about the flight in China United's statement or in the reports on the aviation news websites.

The civil aviation authorities are reducing China United's flight time by 10 percent, Civil Aviation Resource Net said, without elaborating.

The pilots involved in the incident on June 14 have also been barred from flying for six months, according to the report.

Other safety violations by the airline included one flight having "insufficient altitude while making a descent" and a plane operating "while not suitable to fly", according to the report.

China United Airlines is a domestic airline based in Beijing.

It operates flights to cities including Shanghai and Guangzhou.

It is a budget carrier and a subsidiary of China Eastern Airlines.