Asiana flight lands safely after door opens mid-flight

SEOUL (Reuters) – An Asiana Airlines plane landed safely in the South Korean city of Daegu on Friday after a door on the plane opened shortly before arriving at the airport, a company spokesman said.

According to the airport’s flight schedule, the plane landed at Daegu airport at around 12:40 am (0340 GMT) after taking off from Jeju island an hour earlier.

A spokeswoman for the company said no one was injured in the incident, but the shock caused some passengers to have difficulty breathing and were taken to hospital.

Daegu’s fire chief said nine people were transferred to a nearby hospital.

An Asiana Airlines spokeswoman said authorities are investigating how the door opened.

“Police are probing the incident after it was reported that a passenger sitting near the emergency exit touched the exit lever,” the officer said.

(Reporting by Joo-Min Park and Soo-Hyang Choi; French edition edited by Lina Golovnya, Blandine Heinault)