This photo taken on April 29, 2020 shows flight attendants at the departure hall of Incheon International Airport in Incheon, just west of Seoul. (Yonhap)
SEOUL, May 24 (Korea Bizwire) — A flight attendant who passed away from leukemia after years of flying over Arctic routes belatedly received industrial accident recognition.
The Committee on Occupational Diseases Judgment, which operates under the umbrella of the state-run Korea Workers’ Compensation & Welfare Service, admitted last week that there was a causal relationship between the flight attendant’s work and the occurrence of leukemia.
This recognition cleared the way for the bereaved family of the flight attendant to receive benefits including financial compensation and funeral expenses.
This was the first time in South Korea that a flight attendant diagnosed with leukemia after years of being exposed to cosmic rays received the industrial accident recognition.
After joining Korean Air Lines Co. in 2009, the flight attendant served on flights over Arctic routes for a period of six years.
The flight attendant was struck with leukemia in 2015 and filed an industrial accident application three years later. The flight attendant, however, passed away in May last year before the results of the application had been released.
The risk of being exposed to cosmic rays for flight attendants serving on Arctic routes has been presented many times. The government also set up a safety management provision regarding these kinds of services in 2013.
Nonetheless, it took three years for the flight attendant to receive the industrial accident recognition, highlighting once again that the procedure of making judgment on industrial accident recognition is excessively lengthy.
J. S. Shin (js_shin@koreabizwire.com)
