Man who opened airplane exit door mid-flight ‘felt suffocated’ inside cabin and ‘wanted out’: police
A man who opened the emergency exit door of an Asiana Airlines plane during a flight in South Korea earlier this week felt “suffocated” inside the cabin and “wanted out quickly,” local authorities said Saturday.
The passenger, described by the Yoonhap News Agency as a 33-year-old male who was traveling alone, was arrested Friday afternoon shortly after the Airbus A321 landed at an airport in the city of Daegu, about 150 miles south of Seoul.
On Saturday, police said the still-unnamed suspect told investigators he had recently lost his job and was under a lot of stress.
"He felt the flight was taking longer than it should have been and felt suffocated inside the cabin,” a Daegu officer said, according to the Agence France-Press. “He wanted out quickly.”
The incident happened around 1 p.m. local time, shortly before the aircraft was scheduled to land.
Nobody was seriously hurt because of the low altitude of the plane, but 12 people were taken to a hospital with trouble breathing, according to the Transportation Ministry.
The incident — described by a passenger as “chaos with people close to the door appearing to faint one by one” — left some of the 194 people on board “in panic.”
“I thought the plane was blowing up,” the passenger told Yonhap. “I thought I was going to die like this.”
© New York Daily NewsBlack bear steals 60 cupcakes from Connecticut bakery
A black bear is being blamed for devouring 60 cupcakes at a central Connecticut bakery, then wandering away.
Taste by Spellbound owner Miriam Stephens wrote about the encounter on Instagram, where she claimed the interloper entered her bakery’s garage and helped itself to dozens of pastries being loaded into a delivery van. An employee named Maureen first made the grisly discovery.
“All [of a] sudden, we hear her screaming bloody murder and then yelling, ‘There’s a bear in garage!’” Stephens said.
The frightened staffer ran back inside the bakery and slammed shut a door connecting the garage to the kitchen.
Williams told local station WTNH she tried scaring off the bear by yelling. It left and returned to the garage three times before turning the tables on her team, which took off running when the bear charged them before dragging a tray of cupcakes into a parking lot and eating the desserts. Surveillance video shows the bakers’ hasty retreat.
That’s when another staffer came up with a plan.
“Lisa then had a brilliant idea to go out the front and get in her car to drive around back and she started beeping her horn like a crazy person,” Williams said.
The bear finally left, and authorities arrived a short time later.
Other Avon, Connecticut, business owners have reportedly had encounters with bears in the area. Taste by Spellbound’s landlord is working with Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection with regards to their recent visit.
Connecticut officials say black bears in the state can weigh as much as 550 pounds, and stand between 5 and 6 feet tall. They’re omnivores who apparently enjoy confections too.
© New York Daily NewsCCTV shows black bear taking 60 cupcakes from Connecticut bakerySurveillance footage shared on social media shows a black bear entering a bakery's garage in Connecticut, taking a box of 60 cupcakes and eating them. Workers at Taste by Spellbound, in the town of Avon, are seen trying to scare the bear and then running away moments later, scared themselves. Police officers were called and no one was injured. There are 1,000 to 1,200 black bears living in Connecticut, the state environmental agency says, with sightings recorded last year in 158 of the state’s 169 towns and cities.
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