Korean tourist fined for slapping airport official's face

A security officer gets a slap on the face from a departing traveller during a second metal detector scan at Suvarnabhumi airport late on Saturday night. (Photo captured from a video clip)

A Korean woman was fined 1,000 baht for slapping the face of a female security officer who was scanning her at Suvarnabhumi airport late on Saturday night.

Media reported that the incident happened in the departure zone of the airport about 11pm on Saturday. At the time, the female airport security officer was using a handheld metal detector on the Korean woman after she had set off an alarm at a metal detector door.

The woman initially refused repeatedly to be scanned with a handheld device. The official tried to hold her wrist to stop her but she shook off the official's hands, raised her own hands to make an X signal, walked towards another man and hit her body against a man who was collecting his belongings behind an X-ray belt.

After the hit, the tourist raised an X signal again, stepped back to the officer and raised another X signal. A man who accompanied her tried to hold her arm when the officer approached to use the handheld detector on her.

At the moment of the repeated scan, the tourist spread her arms cooperatively while the accompanying man held her left wrist up.

But when the officer held her right wrist to lower it, the female tourist raised another X signal and slapped the officer's face.

The management of the airport praised the officer for strictly following practised steps after an attack by a traveller. That was to step away and wait for a supervisor to handle the situation.

The official followed normal procedure by filing a complaint with local police and later did not pursue any legal action to protect the national image. Police fined the Korean tourist 1,000 baht for the assault.