Asiana Airlines said it will no longer sell passengers for certain emergency exit seats of its Airbus A 321 - 200 aircraft, following a recent incident in which a man allegedly opened a jetliner door during a flight.
The seats are 26 A on 174-seat A 321s and 31 A on 195-seat models, the airline said in a statement. The seats are close to the center of the plane, close to the doors on the left-hand side of a single-aisle aircraft.
The airline said it is a safety precaution and applies even if the flight is full. The left-hand side of the seat is where flight attendants sit for takeoff and landing.
On Friday afternoon, a passenger appeared to have opened the emergency door of an Asiana Airlines plane just before it was about to land at Daegu airport in the southern part of South Korea, an airline official said.
Police said the man had been arrested in connection with the incident. He told them he had been under a lot of stress recently after losing his job and had felt suffocated and wanted to get off of the plane quickly, according to the Yonhap news agency.
Video of the incident showed the wind whipping through the cabin of the plane as passengers grappled with their armrests.
There are 200 people on board, including 194 passengers, according to Asiana Airlines.
According to the Daegu Fire Department, 12 people suffered minor injuries from hyperventilation, and nine of them were sent to hospitals in Daegu.
The jet was flying from Jeju island to Daegu, south of South Korea's southern coast.