Twelve people were slightly injured Friday after the door of Asiana Airlines' Airbus A321-200 opened. The 33-year-old man told investigators he felt suffocated and tried to get off the plane quickly.
The plane was preparing to land in Daegu on a one-hour flight from the southern island of Jeju. The man, surnamed Lee, faces a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison for violating the aviation security law, the Ministry of Transport says. "I feel sorry for the kids," he said, in a likely reference to teenage athletes on board.