A passenger who attempted to open one of emergency exits mid-flight and two others who joined her in a scuffle with flight attendants have been detained by the police.

A Beijing Capital Airlines (JD) plane was performing flight JD5180 from Changsha in Hunan Province to Sanya in Hainan Province on Monday afternoon when the flight attendants noticed the woman trying to open the emergency door, according to a post by Sina Weibo user @RogerStandy.

When cabin crew stopped the passenger, she threatened to commit suicide on the plane. A scuffle then broke out in which two other passengers joined the woman in fighting the crew.

The woman and two others who joined her in a scuffle were restrained as they fumbled with the controls of an emergency exit door as the plane was performing flight JD5180 from Changsha to Sanya, the source said.

"A female passenger got up and tried to do something at the door, but was stopped by crew members," Capital Airlines said in a statement later Monday.

The suspects were restrained by flight crew and then arrested once the plane reached Sanya.

"It's really not an easy job to be flight crew, especially when facing the daredevils," the source RogerStandy said.

Capital Airlines confirmed the incident, but said the airport authority was still checking the details.

The suspects are now being held in pre-trial detention on the grounds of endangering public safety.

According to VariFlight, China's leading flight status service provider, the flight JD5180, performed by an Airbus A320 aircraft (Registration B-8072), took off from Changsha at 12:05 p.m. and landed safely at Sanya Phoenix International Airport at 2:11 p.m.