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| In this photo taken on Sept. 7, 2019, Asiana Airlines flight attendants are seen in uniform, two wearing trousers and one in a skirt as they pass a model airplane at the company's headquarters in western Seoul. Newsis |
By Lee Hae-rin
Calls are growing here for airline companies to allow and encourage female cabin crew members to wear trousers for their benefit and convenience in their inflight safety duties after a viral image showed an Asiana Airlines flight attendant wearing a skirt, which was then criticized as not practical after a recent inflight incident.
On May 26, a male passenger in his 30s allegedly opened an emergency exit of an Asiana plane 213 meters above the ground just before landing at Daegu International Airport. He told police that he felt suffocated and wanted to get off the plane.
None of the 194 passengers aboard were injured in the incident but 12 onboard passengers were taken to a hospital due to breathing difficulties. Police arrested the man for allegedly violating the Aviation Security Law after questioning him.
On Monday, a photo of the incident shared by an official from Daegu International Airport went viral. In it, a female attendant was seen blocking the emergency exit in order to prevent passengers from disembarking through the unsecured exit.
The photo triggered reactions online with some saying that the skirts worn by airline staff as uniforms are uncomfortable and unfit for the safety tasks cabin crew members are assigned.
The Aviation Safety Act defines cabin crew as "those who board an aircraft and perform duties for the safety of passengers, such as emergency aircraft evacuation."
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| An Asiana Airlines flight attendant in uniform wearing a skirt stands behind a safety bar and blocks the emergency exit with her arms in Daegu, May 26. Yonhap |
It has been customary for airline companies to provide skirts as uniforms for female cabin crew members. Recently some airlines have begun offering trousers and allow female attendants to choose, but still, a majority of women flight attendants wear skirts.
"This makes me question whether or not skirts and heels are appropriate uniforms. Considering that they (cabin crew) are responsible for handling and commanding these types of incidents, wouldn't trousers and sneakers be more appropriate for what they do?" an online user wrote, while another commented, "No safety guard (other than female flight attendant) wears a skirt."
This is not the first time flight attendants' uniforms have been criticized for being impractical.
In February 2013, the National Human Rights Commission of Korea recommended Asiana Airlines allow its female employees to choose to wear pants. Until that time, the airline required all staff identifying themselves as female to wear skirts.
The watchdog said at the time that restricting female cabin crew from wearing trousers and regulating their appearances in such a manner is sexual discrimination against women, because it's based on the assumption that women should still in some way have to consider the issue of beauty while working in the service sector.
A decade has passed, but the outdated practices of airlines and the service sector seem to remain, as several female cabin crewmembers testified that they are hesitant to wear trousers at work.
A flight attendant working at a Korean airline company told The Korea Times, Thursday, under the condition of anonymity that the uniforms "sometimes feel so tight that it's difficult to move around." She argued that some female attendants hesitate to request trousers uniforms because the company atmosphere still discourages women from wearing trousers.
However, airlines argue that flight attendants can freely choose what they wish to wear.
"Flight attendants can request whichever uniform they want, it's their personal choice," an official from Asiana told The Korea Times. The company sees both uniforms of skirts and trousers equally and cannot force female attendants to wear one type of uniform or another, because it's in the realm of the employees' autonomy," she said.
The proportion of female staff requesting trousers and skirts was not available, the official said.
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