Story highlights
- Staff already had Tasers but now will be allowed to use them more often
- It comes a week after a mid-air security incident involving Richard Marx made headlines
Think
twice before complaining on your next Korean Air flight -- flight crew
can now use Tasers to deal with mid-air disturbances.
The
airline has made the decision to loosen its Taser usage policy after a
violent incident on a flight last week resulted in '80s' pop star
Richard Marx having to subdue an unruly passenger.
On-board
crew already have had Tasers on hand for years but could only use them
when lives or the physical safety of passengers and cabin crew was
threatened.
But new rules will allow for "more active use" of Tasers, a Korean Air spokesperson told CNN.
Employees
will also get routine training in security gear, and the male to female
ratio of flight crew will be reviewed. Passengers who cause a
disturbance will be banned for an indeterminate period.
The announcement comes one
week after Marx had to help restrain a passenger on board a Korean Air
flight. Reports of the incident -- and Marx's scathing assessment of the
flight crew's performance -- went viral.
The man was tied up with ropes, but broke free of them three times, according to Marx's wife, '90s' MTV VJ Daisy Fuentes.
"A
completely ill-prepared and untrained crew for a situation like this.
Four hours of a psycho passenger attacking crew members and other
passengers,"
But
at the time, Korean Air defended its flight attendants' training,
saying they had followed "response protocol" until police boarded at
Incheon International Airport.
"The
flight attendant considered the safety of the other passengers and
decided to restrain the passenger with ropes (rather than a Taser)," the
statement said.
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