Korean Airlines, cabin crew
Cabin crews attend a training session on how to manage in-flight disturbances in Seoul, South Korea, December 27, 2016.Reuters

Korean Air has allowed its cabin crew members to use stun guns to manage violent passengers. The Seoul-based airlines will also recruit more male flight attendants, will provide more staff training and teach them to use the latest device to tie up violent passengers. Additionally, the carrier also plans to ban passengers with a history of unruly behaviour as per the latest guidelines. 

The carrier has also said that it will try to have at least one male cabin crew on each flight.

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The airline has come under criticism from US singer Richard Marx and his wife over the crew's way of handling a recent incident, Reuters reported. The incident involved a passenger, identified as Lim, inflicting injury to the crew members on the Vietnam-South Korea flight. 

An airline spokesperson told BBC that the accused had consumed two and a half shots of whiskey on-board. 

South Korean police on Tuesday sought an arrest warrant for the passenger on charges of inflicting injury to the crew and a passenger. 

"While US carriers have taken stern action on violent on-board behaviour following the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11 (2001), Asian carriers including us have not imposed tough standards because of Asian culture," Chi Chang-hoon, Korean Air president told a news conference.

"We will use the latest incident to put safety foremost and strengthen our safety standards," he added. According to government data cited by the agency, the number of unlawful acts committed by passengers in-flight has tripled in the last five years. 

As per the existing rules, the use of stun guns is permitted only under serious situations (when the safety and life of a passenger or crew is put in danger). However, different airlines have their own policies on what equipments can be carried on-board.