The pilot of a budget airline flight ignored warning signs that a door was defective and ordered a flight attendant to hold it shut, a court heard on Thursday.

The Seoul Administrative Court ruled against the Eastar Jet captain in a civil suit he filed against the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, which suspended him over the incident.

The "door open" indicator blinked twice, warning of a back door ajar, on an Eastar flight from Incheon to Cheongju on Jan. 9 last year. The captain, identified as Cho, ordered a crewmember to hold the door knob and failed to record the incident in the flight log.

Cho claimed he only told the flight attendant to check the back door as the indicator turned itself off again.