Asiana fails to report passenger who assaulted crew member before takeoff

Asiana Airlines failed to report a passenger who assaulted a crew member aboard a plane readying to depart from Incheon International Airport last week, according to aviation industry insiders on Wednesday.

An Asiana Airlines plane takes off from Incheon International Airport on Jan. 14. [NEWS1]

Asiana Airlines failed to report a passenger who assaulted a crew member aboard a plane readying to depart from Incheon International Airport last week, according to aviation industry insiders on Wednesday.

According to sources, a male passenger on flight OZ204 punched a female flight attendant who attempted to stop him from using the lavatory as the plane was moving toward the runway at 9 p.m. on Sept. 5.

The passenger in question was a foreign national, sources said.

Although the incident was reported immediately to the cabin manager, the airline’s management did not order the plane to return to the terminal, and the flight took off as scheduled.

The airline did not report the unruly passenger to Korean police prior to departure or to U.S. law enforcement upon arrival in Los Angeles 11 hours later.

However, the airline summoned both the flight attendant and cabin manager back to Seoul for follow-up measures, including health checkups and further investigation.

A spokesperson for Asiana said the airline is “closely investigating this issue, and we will take reasonable measures after the results of the investigation have been released.”

Officials from the Seoul Regional Aviation Administration of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport said they plan to investigate the incident and decide later whether they will file a criminal complaint against the passenger and apply penalties against Asiana Airlines for failing to report the incident to police.

BY MICHAEL LEE [lee.junhyuk@joongang.co.kr]