BTS' departure information leaked... Airline insider arrested!

(MHN Sports Jeong Esther Reporter) A, a foreign airline employee who illegally leaked and sold flight information of famous celebrities including BTS, has been booked by the police.

According to the music industry on the 4th, the police booked A last month on charges of violating the Information and Communications Network Act. There have been cases where SNS account operators who illegally traded celebrity flight information have been arrested, but this is the first time that the supplier who initially leaked the information has been caught.

This arrest is evaluated as the result of a long-term joint investigation between Hive and the police. Hive formed a task force (TF) in 2023 and has been tracking flight information leaks for about two years, continuously providing related information to the police to narrow down the investigation network.

The flight information leaked by A had different transaction methods depending on the price. For low prices, the flight number and time of boarding were provided, and for high prices, more specific schedules and seat information were leaked.

Some extreme 'sasaeng fans' who purchased this information attempted to make close contact by booking the same flight or changed their in-flight meal orders. There were even cases of celebrities’ flights being arbitrarily canceled or their seats changed, which continuously raised issues with schedule disruptions and safety.

In the meantime, celebrity agencies requested an investigation into accounts that traded illegal airline ticket information through SNS, but it was not easy to arrest them because it was difficult to identify the sellers.

Airline ticket information was mainly traded secretly through SNS direct messages (DM) or KakaoTalk open chat rooms, and in many cases, the suppliers lived overseas or were difficult to identify.

HYBE monitored illegal transaction accounts through TF and obtained evidence necessary to identify the sellers and submitted it to the police. It is also known that whenever a case of suspected stalking occurred, they promptly provided information to the police and actively supported the investigation.

There are also calls for airlines to come up with measures to prevent recurrence in the wake of this incident. The agencies confessed that even when celebrities’ seats were checked in without permission or there were hundreds of attempts to view or change them, the airlines did not cooperate in investigating log records.

HYBE stated, "The act of selling or purchasing illegally obtained airline tickets is a serious crime that threatens the safety of artists and can cause safety accidents at airports and on airplanes," and "We will apply the zero tolerance principle and respond strictly without any agreement or leniency."

source: https://m.entertain.naver.com/article/445/0000276700