In South Korea, the door of an airplane opened mid-flight. However, the Asiana Airlines plane landed safely in Daegu on Friday, May 26, 2023, Portal said, citing an airline spokesman.
The plane landed in the South Korean city at around 12:40 p.m. (03:40 GMT). One of its doors opened just before reaching the airport. According to the news agency, he had flown out of Jeju Island an hour earlier.
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The door would have opened when the plane was between 213 – according to CNN – and 250 – according to The Korean Times – above the ground and about two to three minutes before landing in the city, which is about 240 km south of Seoul.
No passengers were seriously injured
No one was seriously injured in the incident, but some passengers were taken to hospital with breathing problems from the shock, a company spokesman said. Nine people were taken to a nearby hospital, the Daegu fire chief said.
In total, the plane carried 200 people on board, including 194 passengers, according to Asiana Airlines, CNN reports. Among the passengers were 48 elementary and junior high school athletes who were scheduled to take part in a national sporting event in the neighboring city of Ulsan on Saturday, The Korea Times said.
“The children were shaking and crying in panicAccording to Yonhap, a Seoul-based news outlet, he gave birth to the mother of one of the athletes. Those sitting near the exit must have been the most shocked.”.
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suspect arrested
Asiana Airlines spokesman said authorities are investigating how the door opened. Korea JoogAng Daily reports that local police have arrested a suspect.
A passenger sits near the emergency exit “opened the door manually by operating the lever”, a company representative told AFP. He was taken to the police station “to be asked why he opened the door”.
This is a 33-year-old man who police said was traveling alone and was not drunk at the time of his arrest, but did not explain his alleged gesture, the Korea Times said. “It’s difficult to have a normal conversation with him”said an official quoted by the newspaper.
Video of the incident released
In a short video of the incident released by Yonhap, the wind can be seen rushing through the open door mid-flight, cloth headrests and passengers’ hair flying in all directions, while some urgent screams are heard, describes AFP. Another video shared on social media shows passengers sitting in the emergency exit row next to the open door being shaken by strong winds, the news outlet said. Two of them, strapped in, wince as the wind picks up as they cling to the armrests and try to turn away from the door.
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An incident described as “very strange” by Geoffrey Thomas, aviation expert at Airline Ratings, to CNN. According to the media, the device was identified as an Airbus 321 on the Flightradar 24 tracking website. However, according to this expert: “Technically it’s not possible to open these doors in flight”taking into account the landing speed of such an aircraft.