Asiana Stops Selling Emergency Seats After Passenger Opened Flight's Door Mid-Air

Asiana Airlines, South Korea's second-biggest carrier, said on Sunday it has stopped selling certain emergency seats of A321-200 passenger jets following a recent incident in which a passenger opened a door of the same aircraft model just before landing. Asiana Airlines halted the sale of the 26A seat of 11 A321-200s, which can carry 174 passengers, and that of the 31A seat of three A321-200s, which can accommodate 195 passengers, the company said in a statement. The seats right beside the emergency doors in A321-200s will be excluded for reservation even if all seats on the planes are fully booked, the statement said, without providing any specific timeframe for the suspension, reports Yonhap news agency.

The incident took place on an A321-200 aircraft heading to the city of Daegu, 237 kms southeast of Seoul, from the southern Island of Jeju on Friday. A man sitting in the emergency seat row opened the door when the 195-seat A321-200 aircraft was about 213 meters from the ground right before landing at Daegu International Airport.

None of the 194 people aboard the plane fell out or were hurt in Friday's incident, but 12 panicked passengers showed symptoms of breathing difficulty and some of them were taken to a hospital. A court issued an arrest warrant on Sunday for Lee for an alleged violation of the aviation security law, citing the seriousness of his case and the risk of flight.

Under the act, a passenger who operates the doors, emergency exits or devices of an airplane could face a prison term of up to 10 years. During questioning, the man said he had been under a lot of stress after losing his job recently and that he opened the door because he wanted to get off quickly after feeling suffocated, according to police officials.

The company also began accepting customer complaints over the incident at its Flight Irregularity Claim Center at the Daegu airport. The company said it has so far received two complaints regarding the plane accident. Meanwhile, all the emergency seats in other passenger jets operated by Asiana are available for reservation.

Another Asiana low-cost carrier unit Air Busan said it is also considering stopping the sale of emergency row seats. Budget carrier Air Premia said it is mulling suspending the sale of seats near the emergency doors. Other carriers, such as Jin Air Co., the budget carrier unit of Korean Air Co., are considering a similar move.

The transport ministry said taking such a measure depends on airlines' own decisions and is not based on the aviation authorities' regulations. An official at an airline company said Asiana appears to be overreacting to the incident, given that passengers in the emergency seat rows are required to assist flight attendants in helping other passengers escape the plane in case of an emergency.