Flight attendants on a Korean Air flight from Bangkok to Seoul struggled to subdue a man who suddenly lunged at an emergency exit and attempted to open the door as the plane was cruising at 37,000 feet during the four-and-a-half-hour flight to the Korean capital.
The terrifying moment that the man grabbed the handle of the emergency exit door on flight KE658 was captured on video by TikTok user Jackson Lee in a short 10-second clip that has since gone viral across social media.
The flight, operated on an Airbus A330 with as many as 284 passengers onboard, departed Bangkok at around 9:30 pm, but around an hour into the flight, the cabin crew noticed that a passenger was sitting on a flight attendant jumpseat at the mid-cabin emergency exit.
According to the airline, the cabin crew asked the man to return to his assigned seat, but he refused and started to argue with the flight attendants. The situation then quickly escalated when the man began threatening the crew members before he suddenly lunged at the exit door.
At this point, flight attendants rushed to restrain the man, who was handed over to local police after the plane landed at Seoul Incheon Airport without further incident.
At cruising altitude, it should be impossible to open an emergency exit inflight due to the pressure difference between the passenger cabin and the outside of the aircraft. Some planes also have speed locks installed on emergency exits, which lock the door shut when the aircraft reaches a set speed.
These safety mechanisms are, however, not always foolproof, as was demonstrated on a flight operated by another Korean airline, Asiana, in May 2023 when a man managed to open the mid-cabin emergency exit of an Airbus A321 as it was on final approach to Daegu.
In that case, the aircraft had descended to an altitude that made it possible for the power-assisted door to open while the plane was still in the air.
The mid-cabin exits on Airbus A321 aircraft only have one flight attendant assigned to guard both doors, and in this incident, the crew member was sitting on the opposite side of the cabin when a man sitting right by the exit managed to open the door.
In the confusion, the flight attendant didn’t realize that the passenger sitting by the exit was responsible, and the airline initially thought that a technical malfunction was responsible. In fact, the airline was about to let the passenger walk free until he claimed responsibility.
In the wake of the incident, Korean airlines must now make an announcement to passengers reminding them not to open or attempt to open an emergency exit without good cause.
