South Korean authorities announced today that they plan to conduct “special inspections” on all Boeing 737-800 aircraft currently in use in the country. This decision follows the death of 179 people in the crash of a passenger aircraft of this type immediately after it made an emergency landing yesterday, Sunday, in the city of Muan.
A total of “101 Boeing 737-800 aircraft are currently in use in South Korea,” and authorities are “considering options to conduct special inspections” regarding their safety, explained Joo Jong-hwan, an official responsible for aviation at the Ministry of Transport in the Asian country, during a press briefing.
Another Jeju Air aircraft faces issue
Another Boeing 737-800 operated by the low-cost airline Jeju Air, which was conducting a domestic flight, encountered an unspecified problem with its landing gear system. The issue was reportedly similar to the one described by the crew of the aircraft of the same type that crashed yesterday, Sunday. However, the Jeju Air plane returned to the airport it had just departed from and landed safely, according to the South Korean national news agency Yonhap.
The aircraft had departed from Gimpo Airport in Seoul en route to Jeju earlier today, Yonhap reported, citing sources in the aviation sector.
Out of the 41 aircraft in Jeju Air’s fleet, 39 are of this type.
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Source: ANA-MPA
