Three Hong Kong student leaders refused to board a plane flight going to Beijing after airline authorities said that their travel permits were invalid.
The students, namely Alex Chow, Nathan Law and Eason Chung, members of the Hong Kong Federation of Students initially planned to go to Beijing to talk directly to Chinese Premier Li Keqiang after not reaching an agreement between Hong Kong officials.
The three student leaders were supposed to board a Cathay Pacific flight going to Beijing.
However, a spokesman from the airline argued that refusing to board the student leaders was not their idea, as Chinese authorities reportedly told Cathay Pacific that the students' travel permits were indeed invalid.
The spokesperson for the airline did not divulge other details, but a representative of the student leaders commented on the incident.
"Cathay has confirmed that their (students') return home card has been canceled by the mainland authorities, so they could not get the required certificates to get on to the plane," Yvonne Leung, the representative of the Hong Kong Federation of Students, told reporters.
Chow, Law and Chung soon left the airport after the incident, only to be greeted by media and nearly 300 supporters outside the airport, carrying yellow umbrellas that have become a symbol of the democracy movement the three have been pushing for.
Protesters and activists have been literally camping out of some of the world's expensive real estate in Hong Kong causing financial centers to be paralyzed.
The protesters are calling for free elections for the city's leader in 2017.
Meanwhile, Beijing announced that the protests were illegal, that open nominations are not allowed under the city's laws, and imposed strict rules in the Chinese-controlled city, leading police to fire tear gas at the rallyists-an event that caught the attention of different media outlets around the world.
