Misbehaving on Korean Air May Get You Tasered by a Flight Attendant

Misbehaving on Korean Air May Get You Tasered by a Flight Attendant

The Los Angeles Times wrote a pretty interesting article this weekend about the safety measures Korean Air is taking to deal with out of control passengers.  This is all to deal with what many airlines consider to be a growing problem.  According to the International Air Transport Association, there were 10,854 incidents of unruly passengers in 2015, which was a 16% increase from the previous year.  In South Korea, the number of incidents is even worse, having tripled in the past five years.

Korean Air is dealing with this increase by training its flight attendants to take on the passengers, which included training them on how to use tasers to subdue an unruly passenger.  Additionally, the airline is considering a proposal to ensure a male flight attendant is on every flight and is properly trained in how to subdue a passenger who gets out of control.

The airline began focusing on new security measures after an incident last month when an unruly passenger started attacking passengers and flight attendants on a flight from Vietnam to South Korea.  Richard Marx, a singer, posted about the incident and claimed that he helped in subduing the unruly passenger.  The incident was captured on video, which is included below.

Marx later took to social media to criticize the airline for being “ill-prepared” and “untrained” to handle the incident.

According to the President of Korean Air, “While U.S. carriers have taken stern action on violent on-board behavior following the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11 (2001), Asian carriers including us have not imposed tough standards because of Asian culture.”