An airline official said the man, in his 30s, who was sitting in the emergency seat, appeared to have opened the door when the plane was about 213 meters above the ground and about two to three minutes away from landing at the airport nearly 300 kilometers south of Seoul.
Fortunately, however, the plane landed safely.
The door on the flight was opened.
Local police said a man was arrested and he admitted opening the door, but did not say why he did it.
South Korea's Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport said in a statement that police and the ministry are investigating an individual for violating aviation laws.
According to Asiana Airlines, there were a total of 200 people on board, including 194 passengers. Twelve people suffered minor injuries and nine of them were taken to a hospital in Daegu.
The plane, identified on tracking website Flightradar 24 as an Airbus 321, crashed while en route from Jeju Island, off the southern coast of South Korea, to Daegu.
Aviation expert Geoffrey Thomas of Airline Ratings described the incident to CNN as "very strange" as it was technically impossible to open those doors during the flight.
Ambulance takes passengers to hospital
Thomas noted that the landing speed of an A321 is around 150 knots (276km/h), meaning winds of similar speeds were blowing across the plane. “It seems implausible that the door could be opened right away and then go against the airflow, which is technically impossible, but somehow it happened.”
The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport said it has dispatched aviation safety inspectors to the scene to check whether there were any irregularities in the aircraft's maintenance.
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