In the 2012 film “Flight,” when the pilot Whip Whitaker (played by Denzel Washington) steps forward in a climactic scene to admit he was intoxicated while flying a faulty aircraft, I was on the edge of my seat, shouting out, “No, don’t do it!” The woman who everyone assumed had consumed the alcohol on that plane was already dead. Please don’t do it.

But he did. 

The latest controversy over pending penalties for Asiana Airlines, Korea’s No. 2 carrier, somehow brought back memories of this movie.

The reason foreign carriers and the International Air Transport Association, not to mention Korean-Americans in the U.S., got involved in deciding how to punish Asiana for the San Francisco crash last year is because these people believe a harsh penalty would serve no real purpose.

They say that safety cannot be obtained without honest and complete information, and that if the penalties become too harsh, then nobody will stand up to help gather the necessary data.

If the consequences are too grave, unless you have some real guts ― like Denzel ― it becomes exceedingly difficult to speak up.

This may be why aviation authorities have more or less stopped handing down severe punishment following aircraft crashes or glitches.

While we accept these global standards, especially those involved in helping keep everyone safer, there is still some concern as over the extent to which the international society is intervening on South Korea’s ruling on Asiana.

Whether the Transport Ministry slaps Asiana with a business suspension that would cost the carrier billions of dollars in losses or a fine is up for the ministry to decide.

There are currently no laws or regulations on lobbying in such cases, and to be honest, it’s easy to understand why Asiana would go to such lengths, but it cannot expect to influence the final decision.

Both a suspension and a fine would be extremely costly for the carrier, but the former would be more damaging because it would lose business, and lose it to its top rival Korean Air.

So as many can see, it is not only a matter of money or customers, but also a matter of a rivalry that goes back decades.

Asiana itself caught up with Korean Air in route numbers and passengers when the nation’s No. 1 carrier was out of the picture in the wake of the Guam crash in the late 1990s.

Another problem with too much external influence-peddling is that the government has come under excessive pressure.

The lobbying and protesting and petitioning so far can be accepted to some point since when a government is faced with a decision of this gravity, there is a great deal to consider.

But unless evidence proves that Asiana was not in the wrong whatsoever with that crash, it is time for some silence.

The ministry must be left to ponder the facts and the consequences of its penalty for the carrier, without having someone breathing down its neck, anticipating what it considers to be the right results.

Personally, while I’m also unable to decide whether Asiana should be given a fine or a suspension, I understand the rationale behind calls for a severe counteraction.

When Korean Air was issued such a suspension for the Guam crash, it completely overhauled its safety regulations to become more accident-free.

Also, in the back of my mind, I have nagging thoughts about the three who died in the San Francisco crash.

Their families will be financially compensated, but how would they feel if no real punishment was handed down? They would understand that it was for the sake of protecting more lives in the future, but I believe there may be a lingering sense of anguish.

Sometimes, sparing the rod works wonders, but in others, an example must be set.

Again, it is difficult to say which should be the case for Asiana, but as lives have been sacrificed, a price must be paid.

By Kim Ji-hyun

The writer is the business editor of The Korea Herald. She can be reached at jemmie@heraldcorp.com. ― Ed.