South Korea has informed its low-cost carriers to prioritize security over revenue after the lethal crash of a Jeju Air airplane in South Korea final month, in an effort to shore up confidence within the nation’s aviation trade.
In a gathering with South Korea’s 9 finances airways on Thursday, the nation’s transportation ministry demanded that they take measures to scale back flight hours, enhance pilot coaching and improve the variety of upkeep staff. The ministry stopped in need of issuing formal targets, as a substitute leaving it for airways to develop their very own proposals.
Jeju Air mentioned it might scale back the typical each day flight time of its planes to 12.8 hours from 14 per day, in keeping with the ministry. The provider can even add 41 upkeep staff to extend the overall quantity to 350, it mentioned.
The crash, by which a Jeju Air Boeing 737-800 smashed right into a concrete wall at Muan Worldwide Airport, killing 179 individuals, was the worst aviation catastrophe on South Korean soil. And it was the deadliest worldwide since that of Lion Air Flight 610 in 2018, when all 189 individuals onboard died. Journey companies say that individuals have canceled their journeys within the weeks since, in keeping with native media.
Whereas there isn’t any proof indicating that poor upkeep or pilot error was an element within the crash, investigators will take a look at all elements of the flight. That features the airplane’s restore historical past and whether or not a hen strike knocked out its engines and electrical programs.
Airways that ignore security can be shunned by vacationers and disappear, the ministry mentioned in a press release. It mentioned it might droop flight certificates for carriers that don’t adhere to security requirements.
Low-cost carriers have grown quickly previously twenty years regardless of a setback when journey collapsed in the course of the pandemic. However they face price strain as they compete to chop ticket costs.
Among the authorities’s proposed security measures could have a restricted affect on security, however may assist in methods akin to decreasing the workloads of pilots and different staff to lower the chance of fatigue resulting in human error, aviation specialists mentioned.
“There’s not that a lot you are able to do in an hour aside from primary security checks,” mentioned Kwon Bo Hun, a professor of aviation security administration at Far East College, referring to Jeju Air’s determination to chop flight hours.
Officers have mentioned that the airplane that crashed was round 15 years previous and had no historical past of accidents. Older planes are thought of secure, however typically require extra upkeep.
The federal government’s calls for may additionally increase prices for airways that compete to supply cut-price journey. Growing the scale of upkeep crews, as an example, would improve operation prices for airways that function on a mannequin of a no-frills service, resulting in costlier tickets, specialists mentioned.
On Wednesday, the federal government introduced plans to overhaul runway infrastructure that included extending security zones and constructing localizers, the antenna arrays that assist pilots land, with extra versatile metal as a substitute of concrete.
One specific topic of investigations into the crash is the concrete wall on the Muan Airport that contained its antenna array. Flight 7C2216 skidded right into a concrete wall at excessive velocity and exploded, killing all however two of the airplane’s passenger and crew.
A security inspection by the transportation ministry a number of weeks in the past discovered that seven South Korean airports and several other of the nation’s airways have been breaching present security requirements. Violations included failure to conduct security checks inside the required time-frame after takeoff and inadequately changing filters on a airplane’s hydraulic programs after they overheated.
