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South Korea plans to examine all B737-800 Boeing plane operated by home airways after a passenger jet crashed upon touchdown on Sunday, killing all however two of the 181 individuals on board in one of many nation’s worst aviation disasters.
Appearing president Choi Sang-mok has ordered emergency security checks on the nation’s airline operation system as investigators study why the twin-engined Boeing 737-800 operated by Jeju Air didn’t deploy its touchdown gear, skidding down the runway earlier than it struck a wall and burst into flames at Muan worldwide airport within the south of the nation.
On Monday morning, one other B737-800 plane operated by the identical airline returned to Gimpo home airport due to a warning message about its touchdown gear, Jeju Air advised a briefing. The touchdown gear was later discovered to be working nicely, the airline stated. Shares of Jeju Air slid to their lowest degree on Monday, falling as a lot as 16 per cent, earlier than closing down 8.7 per cent.
“We want to first conduct a particular security inspection of B737-800 Boeing plane in operation,” an official on the transport ministry advised a televised briefing on Monday, noting that greater than 100 B737-800 plane had been in operation in South Korea, largely by price range airways.
“We’ll test their working ratios and if airways are abiding by security guidelines together with common upkeep earlier than and after flights.”
The 737-800 is a “next-generation” mannequin of Boeing’s 737 line of single-aisle plane, which has been a workhorse of short-haul air journey since being launched within the Nineteen Nineties. It’s regularly being changed by the extra trendy and fuel-efficient 737 Max.
Though the reason for the crash remains to be being investigated, the incident is one other setback for the US aviation group, which has had a troublesome yr attributable to its manufacturing issues and security protocols, after a door plug blew off a 737 Max in flight in January, following crashes in 2018 and 2019.
The ministry additionally stated it is going to examine Jeju Air, whose plane had the longest month-to-month working hours per aircraft of the nation’s six airways within the third quarter. The aircraft which crash landed on Sunday had flown 13 occasions in six Asian international locations for the 48 hours proper earlier than the accident.
The ministry stated it had fined Jeju Air 9 occasions since 2020, greater than another airline in South Korea, for violating the nation’s aviation security guidelines. Jeju Air stated the variety of flights was not extreme and it had complied with security and upkeep rules.
The ministry stated the aircraft’s flight knowledge and cockpit voice recorders had been recovered with some harm on the skin and it was checking in the event that they remained intact for full evaluation.
Nevertheless it added that the pilot advised air site visitors management that the plane had suffered a fowl strike and referred to as mayday shortly earlier than the crash touchdown.
South Korea is main the investigation into the reason for the accident however the Nationwide Transportation Security Board within the US will ship an investigation workforce to the nation to offer help, with Boeing and the Federation Aviation Administration additionally participating within the probe.
The victims had been largely South Koreans coming back from vacation in Thailand.
