A passenger on a Korean airline sparked panic on Friday when he opened the airplane’s emergency exit door, sending a burst of high-pressure air through the cabin and causing terror and alarm among other passengers.
The turbulent moment was caught on video by another passenger on Asiana Airlines Flight , which was moments away from landing in Daegu International Airport when the rogue traveler approached the emergency exit door and began to pry it open.
Despite the efforts of other passengers to prevent the man from yanking ajar the portal, the man was successful in his efforts. Immediately the plane was subjected to winds around 170 mph, blazing through the cabin like the breath of God.
“It was chaos with people close to the door appearing to faint one by one and flight attendants calling out for doctors on board through broadcasting,” one 44-year-old passenger told a local news outlet.
Watch:
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“I thought the plane was blowing up. I thought I was going to die like this,” the same passenger added.
There were a total of 200 people on board the flight, with six crew members and 194 passengers. Among the latter was a group of Korean youth athletes en route to a sporting event in Ulsan, as reported by the New York Post.
The media reported no fatalities from the incident, but at least twelve people sustained minor injuries as a consequence of the seemingly reckless actions of the man.
The suspect was not identified by name, but authorities say that he is a man in his 30s. He reportedly confessed to opening the door but did not specify a motivation behind this seemingly senseless act, according to CNN. Other passengers claim that the man attempted to jump out of the plane, and authorities have implied that his behavior since being detained has been erratic and unusual.
“It is difficult to have a normal conversation with him,” an official said in a statement to the BBC. “We will investigate the motive of the crime and punish him.”
The incident has also raised questions about the plane’s safety features, with experts noting that the emergency door theoretically shouldn’t have been able to open while the flight was in mid air.
“Technically, it’s not possible to open those doors in flight,” said aviation expert Geoffrey Thomas in a statement to CNN. “It seems implausible that the door could be opened in the first place and then against the airstream technically impossible, but somehow or another it has happened.”
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