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Business Insider

A plane crashed in South Korea, killing nearly all on board and surprising an industry that has come to view the nation as one of the world’s safest for air travel.
Flight 7C2216, a 15-year-old Boeing 737-800 operated by the Korean budget airline Jeju Air, crashed while landing at Muan International Airport just after 9am local time on Sunday. Of the 181 people on board, there were just two survivors, both crew members.
In recent years, South Korea has been considered among the safest for air travel, but it wasn’t always that way.
“25 years ago, South Korea was a pariah in the aviation industry,” said Airline News editor and aviation expert Geoffrey Thomas. He said the nation’s safety standards have since improved “dramatically.”
Sunday’s crash marks the first fatal accident for Jeju Air, founded in 2005 and named one of the best low-cost airlines in the world in 2024 by aviation ranking website AirlineRatings.com.
The airline was founded after decades of fatal crashes prompted the nation to rehabilitate its aviation safety culture.

Years of deadly crashes
Before 2000, Korean Air and Asiana Airlines were the two main airlines operating in South Korea. In mid-December, Korean Air completed a US$1.3 billion acquisition of Asiana Airlines, marking a new era in the country’s aviation industry.
Korean Air – the country’s flag carrier and its biggest – struggled with safety during the latter part of the 20th century. The airline had seven fatal passenger and cargo crashes between 1978 and 1999, according to data from the Aviation Safety Network.
Pilot error was cited as a contributing factor in each.
In 1997, Korean Air Flight 801 crashed in Guam due to a slew of factors, including pilot error.
Some 75 passengers and crew, plus four people on the ground, died in 1989 when Korean Air Flight 803 crashed while attempting to land at Tripoli International Airport in Libya.
An Associated Press report published in 1990 said the Seoul Criminal Court sentenced the pilot, who cited poor visibility, to two years in prison for causing the crash.
One of the worst incidents happened in 1997 when Korean Air Flight 801 flew from Seoul to Guam. The Boeing 747 plane attempted to land at the A.B. Won Guam International Airport when it crashed, resulting in the deaths of over 200 passengers.

The US National Transportation Safety Board published a report on Flight 801, which said the probable cause for the crash was the “captain’s failure to adequately brief and execute” the approach, combined with the first officer and flight engineer’s failure to monitor or challenge the captain.
Two fatal Korean cargo flights in 1999 also pointed to serious safety problems, including failed crew communication and cooperation.
Founded nearly 20 years after Korean Air, Asiana only had one fatal crash before 2000, when a Boeing 737 landed short of Mokpo’s airport in South Korea in 1993. Reuters reported that an inquiry found that pilot error was the cause of the crash, which killed over 60 people.
The series of crashes made Korean Air a pariah in the aviation industry.
In 1999, Delta and Air France suspended their code-share partnerships with Korean Air, temporarily severing their airline alliances.
Around the same time, the US Department of Defence banned its employees from flying on Korean Aeroplanes.
In 2001, the Federal Aviation Administration downgraded South Korea’s safety rating, citing its failure to meet international standards – representing a particularly low point for the nation.


From unreliable to the gold standard
In the late 1990s, South Korea embarked on an effort to rehabilitate its air safety reputation. It hired a retired Delta executive to help overhaul training and hiring practices.
Investigations of several Korean Air crashes found that cultural issues in the cockpit – wherein first officers and flight engineers didn’t communicate effectively with the captains or hesitated to challenge them – were partly to blame for the deadly accidents.
According to a 2006 report from The Wall Street Journal, the airline shored up its training by increasing shared responsibilities among pilots and reducing its hiring of Korean Air Force veterans who struggled to collaborate with others who they considered inferior in rank.
The cultural changes paid off in the years to come.




In 2002, Delta and Air France resumed their partnerships with the airline. Likewise, the US Department of Defence lifted its ban on employees flying on the airline.
By 2008, Korean Air performed better than US airlines in the International Civil Aviation Organisation’s safety audit.
Korean Air is today considered among the world’s safest airlines, and is part of the international SkyTeam Alliance – which requires strict high levels of safety to join.
“They certainly have cleaned up,” said Thomas, the editor from Airline News.
He added that Jeju Air had an “excellent” record since its founding and that the 737-800 is “the workhorse of the world.”
“It is the most reliable aircraft out there, so everybody knows how it works,” Thomas said.

In the case of Sunday’s crash, Thomas said the pilots were likely overwhelmed as they were dealing with “a disaster.”
“I think the issue is multiple bird strikes and then multiple failures resulting from that,” Thomas said. “I would expect by the end of the week we will have critical information about exactly what went on, the multiple failures, and the cockpit discussion about what was going on.”
But some information may not be immediately available, he said.
“As a responsible country, any safety learnings from this would come out immediately so this information could be passed on to other operators of the 737 model of aircraft,” Thomas said. “It may not necessarily be transmitted to the general public, but it would be transmitted to airline operators to alert them to a particular failure to check their own aircraft.”
This article was first published by Business Insider


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South Korea

Before Jeju Air crash, South Korea had gone from air safety ‘pariah’ to global gold standard

A Jeju Air Boeing 737-8AS approaches Da Nang International Airport. Photo: Shutterstock

Firefighters and recovery teams work at the scene where a Jeju Air Boeing 737-800 series aircraft crashed and burst into flames at Muan International Airport. Photo: AFP

Firefighters and recovery teams work near the scene where a Jeju Air Boeing 737-800 series aircraft crashed and burst into flames at Muan International Airport in Muan. Photo: AFP

The remains of a passenger seat lies on the ground after a Jeju Air Boeing 737-800 series aircraft crashed and burst into flames at Muan International Airport. Photo: AFP

179 confirmed dead in South Korea Jeju Air plane crash

Firefighters carry out extinguishing operations on an aircraft which drove off runaway at Muan International Airport in Muan. Photo: Reuters

Firefighters search near the debris at the site of a plane fire at the Muan International Airport. Photo: AP

A victim rescued from a plane crash is transported to a hospital in Mokpo, South Korea. Photo: AP

Family members of the passengers on Jeju Air flight 7C2216, in Muan, South Korea, on Sunday. Photo: AP

Firefighters and rescue team members work at the Muan International Airport in Muan, South Korea. Photo: AP

Experts wonder if bird strike caused South Korea plane crash: ‘more questions than answers’

A firefighter and a dog work near the scene where a Jeju Air Boeing 737-800 series aircraft crashed and burst into flames at Muan International Airport in South Jeolla Province, some 288 kilometres southwest of Seoul, on December 29. Photo: AP

Firefighters and rescue personnel work near the scene where a Jeju Air Boeing 737-800 series aircraft crashed and burst into flames at Muan International Airport on December 29. Photo: AFP/Yonhap

Family members of a victim of the Jeju aeroplane crash grieve at Muan International Airport on December 29. Photo: EPA-EFE

Air crash tests South Korea’s acting president two days into the job

Acting South Korean President Choi Sang-mok. Photo: EPA-EFE

Firefighters carry the body of a passenger from the wreckage of Jeju Air flight 7C2216, in Muan, South Korea, on Sunday. Photo: Reuters

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Asia

East Asia

South Korea’s aviation industry has undergone a remarkable transformation, rising from a “pariah” with a history of deadly crashes to a global safety leader


South Korea’s aviation industry has undergone a remarkable transformation, rising from a “pariah” with a history of deadly crashes to a global safety leader.


Aviation

Plane crashes and aviation accidents

Yoon Suk-yeol

Before Jeju Air crash, South Korea had gone from air safety ‘pariah’ to global gold standard

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}South Korea’s aviation industry has undergone a remarkable transformation, rising from a “pariah” with a history of deadly crashes to a global safety leader

South Korea’s aviation industry has undergone a remarkable transformation, rising from a “pariah” with a history of deadly crashes to a global safety leader