[Courtesy of Eastar Jet]
SEOUL -- A 25-year-old female soaker received a suspended jail sentence Tuesday for assaulting a stewardess of South Korean budget carrier Eastar Jet in an onboard drunken rampage that began when she was barred from smoking in a toilet.
A court in the western city of Incheon sentenced the woman to four months in prison and a fine of one million won ($929), but her sentence was suspended for one year. She was found guilty of smoking and beating a female cabin attendant during her flight from an airport west of Seoul to Vietnam in August last year.
The woman, who was drunk at the time, went rampage when the stewardess stopped her from smoking in a toliet and tried to film the scene using her smartphone to take evidence. The stewardess was kicked in the stomach and fell to the floor. The court said it handed down a relatively light sentence because the defendant suffering from depression acted under the influence of alcohol.
Drunken rampages aboard airplanes have become a frequent issue in South Korea. In 2016, a man was suppressed in mid-air by flight attendants and passengers on a flight en route from Vietnam to South Korea. The case went viral after the wife of Richard Marx, a world-famous rock singer who played a key role in suppressing the man, uploaded a video footage of the mayhem. He received a suspended sentence, along with a fine of five million won and 200 hours of community service.
In March last year, a 56-year-old man was accused of acting violently and shouting at flight attendants during a flight from Beijing to the southern city of Kimhae.
Disruptive air passengers face tough punishment or a maximum prison term of five years under a revised aviation law prompted by the infamous "nut rage" case involving Cho Hyun-ah, the eldest daughter of Korean Air's founding family, in 2014 when she became enraged when a flight crew served her nuts in a bag instead of a dish.
The fine for drunken passengers who injure other passengers has doubled to 10 million won in an effort to curb disruptive in-flight cases.
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