Lee Yoon-Joon said the moment was like something out of a ‘disaster movie’ (Picture: Good Morning America / AP

A plane passenger sitting next to a man who opened an emergency exit door in mid-air has said he thought he was going to die.

Lee Yoon-Joon, 48, watched in horror when his fellow rider, 33, tore open the door while their Asiana Airlines flight was 700 feet above South Korea.

The flight to Daegu International Airport from Jeju carrying 194 people descended into chaos as turbulent winds whipped through the door.

Dramatic video showed Lee, who was wearing red shorts, getting blasted by the wind as he clenched to the seat in the final minutes of the flight on May 26.

With the help of flight attendants he had to physically restrain the man, who has since been arrested, he told the South Korean Yonhap News Agency.

Lee was heading home the day before his birthday following a business trip to Jeju, the country’s largest island on the southern coast.

The man was arrested after the flight landed at Daegu International Airport (Picture: AP)

Lee said: ‘The day before my birthday almost became a memorial service day.’

The passenger made sustained eye contact with him during the flight and made a ‘creepy’ expression one or two minutes before opening the door at about 12:45pm.

The man later told police he opened the door before he was ‘uncomfortable’ and ‘wanted to get off the plane quickly’. He was stressed over recently losing his job.

As the wind blasted into the Asiana Airlines Airbus A321, Lee said it felt like something out of a ‘disaster movie’ as he and other passengers struggled to breathe.

Others, he added, were crying. Some fainted.

‘Frankly speaking, I thought, “Am I going to die?”‘ Lee said, according to a translation by ABC’s Good Morning America.

‘A million things were on my mind at that moment.’

A flight attendant then said ‘help me’, prompting Lee to pin the man down.

The plane door was opened when the aircraft was some 700 feet above the ground moments before landing (Picture: Yonhap/AFP/Getty Images)

‘I am an ordinary citizen and did what the flight attendant told me,’ he added.

Lee then joined flight attendants in wrestling the man, holding him down with his ‘bare hands’.

Twelve passengers were taken to hospital with breathing issues and other minor symptoms. They have all since been discharged.

Some of the passengers on board included schoolchildren and a student athletics team, according to Asiana Airlines.

The airline, South Korea’s second-biggest carrier, said Sunday it has stopped selling certain emergency seats – even if the flight is fully booked, per Yonhap.

Asiana Airlines has been approached for comment.

The suspect was arrested last Sunday for violating aviation security law, which can carry up to 10 years in jail.

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‘A million things were on my mind at that moment.’