Passenger opens plane door in flight

An Asiana Airlines Airbus A321, on which a passenger opened a door before the aircraft landed, is pictured at an airport in Daegu, South Korea on Friday. (Photo: Yonhap via Reuters)
An Asiana Airlines Airbus A321, on which a passenger opened a door before the aircraft landed, is pictured at an airport in Daegu, South Korea on Friday. (Photo: Yonhap via Reuters)

A passenger opened an emergency exit on an Asiana Airlines flight as it was preparing to land in South Korea on Friday.

The plane was carrying nearly 200 passengers as it approached the runway at Daegu International Airport in South Korea, about 240 kilometres southeast of Seoul, on a domestic flight.

When the plane was around 200 metres above the ground, a passenger sitting near the emergency exit “opened the door manually by touching the lever”, the carrier’s representative told AFP.

The incident caused some passengers to have breathing difficulties, and several people were taken to a hospital after the landing, Asiana said, adding that there were no major injuries or damage.

Daegu police told AFP that they had taken in a man in his thirties for questioning over the incident.

A short video of the incident shot by a passenger on board showed wind ripping through the open door in mid-air, with fabric seat-backs and passengers’ hair flapping wildly as some people shouted in surprise.

Another video shared on social media showed passengers sitting in the emergency exit row next to an open door being buffeted by strong winds.

Vocabulary

  • breathing (noun): bringing air in and out of the lungs - การหายใจ
  • buffet: to knock or push somebody/something roughly from side to side - พัดกระหน่ำ, โหมกระหน่ำ
  • domestic: inside the country being talked about - ภายในประเทศ
  • injury (noun): physical damage done to a person or a part of their body - อาการบาดเจ็บ
  • manually: by hand - ด้วยมือ
  • questioning: when the police asks a person questions in the investigation of a crime -
  • runway (noun): a long narrow strip of ground with a hard surface that an aircraft takes off from and lands on - ทางขึ้นลงของเครื่องบิน
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