Korean Passenger Plane Turns Back After Discovering Door Was Left Open! [Watch]

A Korean passenger jet was forced to return after one of its doors was discovered to have been left open at 10,000 feet. Passengers reportedly had to listen to the horrific sound of air rushing through the gap.

“We presume that the windy sound came from a gap in the door, which could have led to a drop in cabin pressure,” said a Jin Air official in a Telegraph report.

CNN cited that the passenger plane was a Boeing 737-800 that came from Cebu, Philippines and was bound for Busan, South Korea, on Jan. 3, 2016. There were 163 people on board and the open plane door was only found 40 minutes into the flight. Staff noticed the gap in the door because of the noise produced by the wind while the aircraft was at an altitude of 10,000 feet. The pilot had to go back to Cebu for safety reasons.

Telegraph also reported that one passenger was able to capture the incident on video. The footage featured whistling noise of air coming from the divide between the fuselage and the door. The gap was not very wide, only sufficient for a pinky finger to slip through, although there were still effects in the cabin pressure.

International Business Times revealed that some passengers suffered from nausea and ear pain during the flight, although no serious injuries were reported. The pain in the ears was described by one as similar to the eardrum being torn. The symptoms may have been due to the gradual loss of cabin pressure, resulting to a fatal lack of oxygen inside the jet.

One passenger stated that he was scared that he would die inside the plane since he was already numb with a headache. The children may have suffered more. Another passenger reported seeing a small boy rolling back and forth while holding his ears. The child seemed to have been in pain and not merely overacting.

Park Mun-seong, head of Jin Air in Busan, apologized for the occurrence. The door seemed to be fully functional and allegedly shut properly when staff attempted to close it. It is still uncertain whether the open door was caused by flight attendant error.

Once in Cebu, the passengers had to disembark and take another airplane at 9 p.m. and arrived at Gimhae airport in Busan safely, albeit 15 hours late. No passenger was hospitalized from the incident. Jin Air reportedly promised to compensate each passenger 100,000 won (about $83), Telegraph wrote.