- There have been three incidents with emergency exits on South Korean airlines in the last six months.
- There will be a pre-flight warning telling passengers not to open the emergency exits mid-flight, per JoongAng Daily.
After three incidents in the last six months, South Korean airlines will have to warn passengers not to open the emergency exits mid-flight, according to local outlet JoongAng Daily.
South Korea's transportation ministry said the new regulation is part of a draft amendment of the operating guidelines for airlines, JoongAng Daily reported.
It would mean that, as well as pre-flight warnings against smoking onboard and using electronic devices, passengers will also be told not to open emergency exits.
According to South Korea's Aviation Security Act, tampering with emergency exits is punishable by up to 10 years in prison.
It's not the first measure that South Korea has introduced to try to prevent further incidents. In July, the government approved a new seating scheme in which four South Korean airlines agreed to give emergency exit seats to uniformed workers like airline employees or soldiers, per The Korea Times.
That was prompted by an incident in May when an Asiana Airlines flight was coming in to land and a passenger opened the emergency exit at an altitude of 700 feet, minutes before landing.
Nobody was seriously injured, but nine people were taken to hospital after suffering from suspected hyperventilation, and a 33-year-old passenger was arrested, The Guardian reported.
Then in June, crew members subdued a 19-year-old who tried to open the emergency exit an hour into a flight between the Philippines and South Korea. He was sentenced to three years in prison, The Korea Times reported.
And another incident occurred last Thursday, when a woman under the influence of drugs tried several times to open the emergency exit of a Korean Air flight around 10 hours into the journey between New York and Incheon.