The Asiana Airlines plane was about to land at Daegu International Airport in South Korea when a passenger managed to rip open one of the emergency exits in the middle of the plane, Yonhap news agency reported.
The plane was then about 250 meters up in the air and the cabin crew should not have been able to stop the man. Several testify that panic broke out on board. "I thought I was going to die," one passenger tells Yonhap.
The plane landed with the door open and the passenger, a 33-year-old man, was arrested after the incident on Friday morning Swedish time. 194 passengers were on board the plane, which had taken off from the island of Jeju just over 20 kilometers southeast of the capital Seoul. 12 passengers suffered breathing difficulties and were taken care of after landing. Why the 33-year-old opened the door is still unclear, he will be questioned by police, Yonhap writes.
"Has to do with the entire security system"
Aviation expert Anders Carlsson, editor-in-chief of Flygrevyn, has covered the industry for 20 years and has never heard of anything like it.
"From time to time, passengers for various reasons try to open doors on board aircraft, but since it is a pressurized cabin, it is impossible to open the doors up in the air, but here it has obviously worked, at an altitude of 250 meters the pressure is not so high," he says.
Anders Carlsson takes the incident seriously, which he believes must be thoroughly investigated.
"The doors have to do with the entire security system. If you open the door in an emergency, the slide at the door should be extended, which it did in this case. Had there been another incident upon landing, an escape route would therefore not have been possible. It is serious that he has destroyed safety equipment on board, had it happened in Sweden, the title could have been aviation sabotage.