Professor Kicked Off New York-Bound Flight After Trying to "Self-Upgrade" His Seat

A professor at Pennsylvania State University was detained after the police escorted him off an international flight when he tried to sneak into a better class of seat, state media has reported.

Lu Yong was aboard United Airlines Flight 87 waiting to depart to New York on Sunday afternoon when he tried to "self-upgrade", according to CCTV.

When flight attendants discovered he was in the wrong seat, they asked him to move but he refused.

The captain was alerted and decided to eject Lu from the plane. The airport police arrived to escort him off but he still refused to budge. It took three officers to pry a screaming and kicking Lu out of his seat, and they sustained minor injuries in the process.

He was detained and charged with disrupting public service, which can result in a maximum of three years in jail.

Lu is an associate professor of information sciences and technology at Penn State University. He also held a position at Southwestern University of Finance and Economics in Sichuan province, but it announced on Tuesday he had been fired.