diff --git a/airflow/kubernetes/pod_generator.py b/airflow/kubernetes/pod_generator.py
index 249a5adf0af8b2..16a311f1535a56 100644
--- a/airflow/kubernetes/pod_generator.py
+++ b/airflow/kubernetes/pod_generator.py
@@ -33,13 +33,7 @@ class PodDefaults:
     """
     XCOM_MOUNT_PATH = '/airflow/xcom'
     SIDECAR_CONTAINER_NAME = 'airflow-xcom-sidecar'
-    XCOM_CMD = """import time
-while True:
-    try:
-        time.sleep(3600)
-    except KeyboardInterrupt:
-        exit(0)
-    """
+    XCOM_CMD = 'trap "exit 0" INT; while true; do sleep 30; done;'
     VOLUME_MOUNT = k8s.V1VolumeMount(
         name='xcom',
         mount_path=XCOM_MOUNT_PATH
@@ -50,8 +44,8 @@ class PodDefaults:
     )
     SIDECAR_CONTAINER = k8s.V1Container(
         name=SIDECAR_CONTAINER_NAME,
-        command=['python', '-c', XCOM_CMD],
-        image='python:3.5-alpine',
+        command=['sh', '-c', XCOM_CMD],
+        image='alpine',
         volume_mounts=[VOLUME_MOUNT]
     )
 
diff --git a/tests/kubernetes/test_pod_generator.py b/tests/kubernetes/test_pod_generator.py
index 00ad2bda890e70..bc6de96e7e7873 100644
--- a/tests/kubernetes/test_pod_generator.py
+++ b/tests/kubernetes/test_pod_generator.py
@@ -178,8 +178,8 @@ def test_gen_pod_extract_xcom(self, mock_uuid):
         result_dict = self.k8s_client.sanitize_for_serialization(result)
         container_two = {
             'name': 'airflow-xcom-sidecar',
-            'image': 'python:3.5-alpine',
-            'command': ['python', '-c', PodDefaults.XCOM_CMD],
+            'image': "alpine",
+            'command': ['sh', '-c', PodDefaults.XCOM_CMD],
             'volumeMounts': [
                 {
                     'name': 'xcom',