[Sportschosun Reporter Junseok Kim] Ryu Yi-seo, the wife of singer Jun Jin, revealed that she nearly became the victim of illegal filming by a male passenger while working as a flight attendant.
On the 10th, the YouTube channel ‘My Love Ryu I-seo’ uploaded a video titled ‘Wake-Up Calls Were Mandatory: Former Flight Attendant Ryu Yi-seo and Haeeun Sung Reveal Unprecedented Stories About Strict Airline Hierarchy for the First Time.’
That day, Ryu Yi-seo met Haeeun Sung, who appeared on TVING’s ‘Exchange 2.’ They discussed various topics, including how they joined their airlines, the organizational culture among flight attendants, and the difficulties they experienced at work.
Ryu Yi-seo previously worked for Asiana Airlines, while Haeeun Sung was a flight attendant with Korean Air. Although the two worked for different airlines and recalled differences in regulations and workplace culture, they empathized with each other’s hardships as female flight attendants.
Ryu Yi-seo began by saying that she once had a strange feeling while providing in-flight service to a passenger.
“I was providing service, but something felt strange,” she said. “When I looked down, a man was lying down and doing something.” She described what happened at the time.
Because she was wearing a skirt uniform while serving the passenger, she felt as though he was filming her legs or under her skirt. Ryu Yi-seo immediately reported the situation to her manager, a senior colleague.
“It seemed like the man was filming my legs, so I told my manager, ‘Something is strange. It looks like he is filming me,'” Ryu Yi-seo said, adding that she became more sensitive to cameras and filming afterward.
However, the video did not specifically reveal whether the passenger actually recorded anything or whether illegal filming was discovered during the investigation.
Haeeun Sung also sympathized, sharing a similar experience. “When I was a flight attendant, I lived in the Seongnam area, and perhaps people found it unusual to see someone in a flight attendant uniform, because there were people taking pictures of me on the subway,” she said.
The two said that behind the glamorous image of flight attendants were the real hardships female crew members had to endure, including illegal filming and unwanted physical contact.
They also continued discussing the strict hierarchy that once existed within airlines. Ryu Yi-seo said that new flight attendants were expected to give senior colleagues wake-up calls directly while staying overseas.
Junior employees had to call their seniors, state their affiliation and class year, and then ask, “Are you awake?” She recalled that not making a wake-up call was considered almost unthinkable.
“If I didn’t make the wake-up call, a senior colleague would later ask, ‘Why didn’t you do it?’ Not doing it was simply unacceptable,” Ryu Yi-seo said.
Regardless of age, junior employees had to call senior female flight attendants “unnie.” In elevators, the youngest employee had to hold the button, wait until all the seniors had boarded, and enter last.
There was also an atmosphere in which junior employees were expected to accompany senior colleagues whenever they went out for meals or outings while staying overseas. If someone did not attend, people would say, “I guess something must be wrong with her,” they recalled.
The two also said they had heard that, in the more distant past, junior flight attendants were expected not only to give seniors wake-up calls but even to wash their stockings. They clarified that this was not something they had personally experienced, but rather an old practice they had heard about from senior colleagues.
There were also strict rules requiring flight attendants to maintain their appearance. Haeeun Sung said that she once left her makeup pouch behind while staying overseas, but because wearing makeup was mandatory, she completed her makeup using only concealer and a pencil she found in her carry-on bag.
Ryu Yi-seo recalled that, during training, she had to wear highly visible red nail polish so instructors could easily check whether her nails were properly maintained. Even after joining the airline, she said, flight attendants were required to use mascara and colored lip products.
Haeeun Sung said, “I began my first career at age 23 as a childcare teacher, and I started preparing seriously to become a flight attendant at 24.” After failing an Asiana Airlines interview in 2017, when airline recruitment was rare, she was accepted by Korean Air and worked there for about five years.
Explaining why she left the company, she said, “Rather than simply being one employee at a company, I wanted to do something under the name Haeeun Sung.” She later appeared on ‘Exchange 2’ at the suggestion of her former boyfriend, received widespread affection from viewers, and began working in television.
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