by REERA YOO | @reeraboo
editor@charactermedia.com
Starting next month, South Korean airlines will start broadcasting a new inflight announcement: Don’t go nuts on your flight attendants.
The transport ministry said on Wednesday that seven domestic airlines will be required to make an etiquette announcement before takeoff that asks passengers to follow the cabin crew’s instructions and requests, reports the Wall Street Journal. Korean Air and Asiana are among the carriers that will carry out this new protocol.
The protocol is part of an effort to reduce the number of safety violations, including assault, sexual harassment and smoking, by air passengers. According to the ministry, there has been a sharp increase of these violations on Korean airlines as a whopping number of 190 cases were reported from January to July last year.
Many passengers may regard flight attendants as waiters or waitresses, but the cabin crew also serves as security guards during the flight, said an official ministry official.
According to South Korean aviation laws, flight attendants have the authority to restrain dangerous passengers with plastic handcuffs and ropes until the police collects the passengers upon landing.
Earlier this month, Heather Cho, the eldest daughter of Korean Air’s chairman and former vice president of the airline, was indicted over violating aviation safety laws when she ordered a taxiing plane to return to the gate because she was furious with the way she was served macadamia nuts.
If Cho is found guilty of all charges, she faces a maximum prison sentence of 15 years.
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Photo courtesy of Bromis/Airlines Inform
