Pastors fined for preaching loudly mid-flight and shouting ‘you will go to hell’ at passengers

Two pastors in South Korea have been fined 1m won (£230) each for disrupting a flight by preaching to passengers despite repeated warnings from the cabin crew.

The pastors, both in their 60s, were flying from Jeju to Gimpo on 12 March when they began preaching, standing in the aisle and getting into altercations with passengers who protested against the disruption they were causing.

“You will go to hell if you don’t believe in Jesus,” one of them shouted at passengers as the cabin crew attempted to stop him and make him sit down. The other pastor joined him, shouting “Hallelujah, you will go to hell” while walking up and down the aisle.

When a crew member approached the pastors with a warning, one of them yelled back: “Don’t try to lecture me.”

On 18 August, following a trial, the Seoul Southern District Court convicted the pastors of violating the Aviation Security Act over an incident aboard a flight. “Based on the lawfully collected evidence, both the defendants’ disruptive conduct and their intent to cause it have been established,” the court ruled.

The incident lasted 13 minutes as the pastors ignored repeated objections and warnings from crew members and passengers, the court was told.

The pastors rejected the charges, saying their conduct did not meet the legal definition of “disturbance” and that they never intended to cause a scene.

Under South Korea’s Aviation Security Act, unruly passengers can be restrained using stun guns and binding ropes and an investigation can be opened against them upon landing.

The UN’s International Civil Aviation Organisation defines a disruptive passenger as someone "who fails to respect the rules of conduct at an airport or onboard an aircraft or to follow the instructions of the airport staff or crew members and, thereby, disturbs the good order and discipline at an airport or on board the aircraft”.

According to the International Air Transport Association, there have been 93,107 incident reports of unruly behaviour from more than 140 operators worldwide so far in 2026.