A video showing the situation on board an Asiana flight from Jeju to Daegu has surfaced online, and the “red pants passenger” is the center of attention안전놀이터. The passenger reportedly helped crew members subdue the man who forced open the door.
On July 27, several online communities published a video taken by a passenger on Asiana flight OZ8124 on July 26, the day of the incident. The video shows a passenger wearing red pants sitting in a seat near the door, with the door open and a gust of wind entering the cabin.
The passenger was identified as Lee Yoon-jun, 48, and was seated next to Mr. A, a man in his 30s who opened the emergency door just before landing. Lee, who serves as the permanent vice chairman of the Jeju headquarters of the National Association for Public Safety and Disaster Prevention, an organization affiliated with the Ministry of the Interior and Safety, said he was returning to Daegu, where he makes his living, after traveling to Jeju Island for safety training on the day of the incident.
“During the flight, he kept making eye contact with me and looking around,” Lee told Yonhap, recalling, “I didn’t see him open the door because I was looking at pictures on my phone, but I thought he was in a very bad condition from the time I got on.” “When we got to Daegu Airport, the door opened (in mid-air) and he (who was sitting next to me) looked at me and had this creepy look on his face that was both smiling and scary.”
Video of what happened on board during the “open door landing.”/OnlineCommunity
“When I looked at the flight attendant sitting diagonally to me, she was trying to tell me something,” Lee said, adding, “She kept giving me desperate signals with her eyes.”
Within seconds, Lee says, the plane’s wheels touched down on the runway, and he unbuckled his seatbelt and jumped out of his seat. Soon after, Lee says, he looked back to find himself hanging on to the wall next to the emergency door in front of the open doorway.
A flight attendant, who had made eye contact with Mr. Lee, shouted, “Help!” and Mr. Lee reached out with his left arm and grabbed Mr. A by the scruff of the neck, subduing him. Unable to get up because he was wearing a seatbelt, Lee said he grabbed him around the neck with both hands to prevent him from jumping away.
At this point, three or four flight attendants and passengers came running. They dragged Mr. Lee down the aisle inside the cabin, where the plane was still taxiing down the runway to the landing strip.
“At the time, no one really saw the door open, so they didn’t think it was him, and they thought he was scared and trying to jump out,” Lee said.
“I didn’t realize it was such a big accident, but after I returned to Daegu and spent a day there, I was heartbroken because there were a lot of bad words about the crew on the Internet.” “It was thanks to the crew who organized the situation that no further accidents occurred,” Lee said. “In particular, the flight attendant who kept signing to me with her eyes remained calm throughout. During the landing process, the people who were subduing the criminal could have jumped out, but they did a really safe job.”
The Daegu East Police Station urgently arrested Mr. A for opening the emergency escape door of a landing aircraft (suspected of violating the Aviation Security Act) and has been investigating him for two days. He reportedly said, “I was stressed after losing my job recently,” and “I was frustrated before the plane landed and wanted to get off quickly, so I opened the emergency door.”