Twelve hurt as passenger opens door during South Korean flight

South Korean police have detained a man who opened a door of an Asiana Airlines plane minutes before it was due to land, causing panic among the passengers and leaving 12 people injured.

The Airbus A321-200 plan with 194 people on board landed safely in the city of Daegu early on Friday. It had set off from the holiday island of Jeju an hour earlier, the airport’s flight schedule showed.

Nine passengers, all teenagers, were sent to hospital after suffering breathing issues and other minor symptoms, a Daegu fire department official said.

Authorities were questioning a 33-year-old passenger who had been seated near an emergency exit row, Asiana officials said.

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The plane was two or three minutes away from landing when the male passenger sitting next to an emergency exit opened a cover and pulled a lever so the door opened with the plane about 200 metres off the ground, an Asiana spokesperson said. All onboard were seated with seat belts fastened because the plane was about to land, they said.

A video clip taken by a passenger captured the moment the wind ripped through rows of passengers – who had already fastened their seatbelts to prepare for landing – with the gap in the side of the fuselage clearly visible. The footage showed passengers’ hair flapping wildly as some shouted out in fear.

In another clip, two male passengers sitting in the emergency exit row next to the open door are seen wincing as the wind whips around them while they clutch the armrests and try to turn away from the door.

Yonhap News Agency quoted passengers as saying they suffered severe ear pain after the door opened. It said some cabin crew shouted for help from passengers to prevent the door from being opened. “I thought the plane was going to explode ... It looked like passengers next to the open door were fainting,” an unidentified 44-year-old passenger said.

The passenger said the cabin crew had made an in-flight announcement asking if there were any doctors on board.

The passengers included 48 schoolchildren who were on their way to a weekend sporting event.

“The children were shaking, crying and frightened. Those sitting near the exit must have been shocked the most,” the mother of one of the pupils said.

Yonhap said flight attendants were unable to prevent the suspect from opening the door because they were already seated for landing. The man, who was travelling alone, did not appear to have been intoxicated and had so far refused to answer investigators’ questions, it added.

“It is difficult to have a normal conversation with him,” Yonhap quoted an official as saying. “We will investigate the motive of the crime and punish him.”.

A transport ministry official said authorities were looking into whether Asiana Airlines had followed protocols to manage emergency exits. The official said it was possible to open the emergency exit when the aircraft was near the ground as the pressure inside and outside the cabin were similar.

After the incident, pictures showed an open emergency door near the plane’s left wing and a deployed escape slide ripped away from it. – AP/Reuters