Exit rows have always been “special” to flyers. After all, you get extra legroom! Of course, you have to make yourself available to help in the event of an emergency (along with all the feats needed for it; being able to speak and understand English, lift 50 pounds, etc.). And in today’s airline experience of being nickeled and dimed for everything, you get to pay for that privilege.
However as of May 28th, Asiana Airlines has decided to stop selling some exit row seats on some of its planes.
Not all of them, mind you – just on its 174-seat and 195-seat versions of their A321-200 planes. Their reasoning is the recent incident where a passenger opened the door on one of their Airbus A321s (mere mortals typically can’t open a plane door mid-flight; here’s why he was physically able to do it).
The seats are number 26A on the 174-seat A321s and number 30A on 195-seat models, the airline said in a statement. On both planes, these seats are near the center of the plane, closest to the doors on the left-hand side of the single-aisle aircraft. The corresponding seat on the right-hand side is where flight attendants sit for takeoff and landing, according to the statement.
An Asiana Airlines spokesperson explained that the suspension of sales of the seats comes as it is difficult for flight attendants to control the movements of passengers sitting adjacent to the emergency exits due to the structure of the A321-200 aircraft.
“This measure is a safety precaution and applies even if the flight is full,” the statement said.
So here’s my question – what if someone is sitting next to one of the verboten seats, unbuckles their seat belt, moves over one seat so they’re right next to the door, and opens the door at 700 feet?
Asiana seems to think that if someone isn’t sitting right next to the door, just “next to next to the door,” flight attendants will then somehow be able to stop them?
The Korean Herald reports that Air Seoul, a subsidiary of Asiana Airlines and a low-cost carrier that operates the same A321-200 aircraft, said they also stopped the sales of seats adjacent to the emergency exit. Jin Air, another low-cost carrier, this one owned by Korean Air, is considering the same.
No airlines outside of South Korea have reported ending the sale of exit row seats next to the emergency exit door.
Obviously, the person who opened the door had a mental health issue going on. People with mental health issues fly in planes every day; some of them might even sit in the exit row sometimes. The vast majority of them don’t try to open the emergency exit door. Asiana Airlines was simply unlucky that someone did it on one of their planes.
That doesn’t mean it’s going to happen again, and keeping those seats open on the extraordinarily low chance of something like that ever happening again on one of their A321s is kind of silly.
But what’s even sillier is, if they’re that concerned, you’d think they’d at least stop selling entire exit rows, not just the single seats next to the emergency exit doors, no?
Want to comment on this post? Great! Read this first to help ensure it gets approved.
Want to sponsor a post, write something for Your Mileage May Vary, or put ads on our site? Click here for more info.
Like this post? Please share it! We have plenty more just like it and would love it if you decided to hang around and sign up to get emailed notifications of when we post.
Whether you’ve read our articles before or this is the first time you’re stopping by, we’re really glad you’re here and hope you come back to visit again!
This post first appeared on Your Mileage May Vary
