South Korea has instructed 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 funds airways on Thursday, the nation’s transportation ministry demanded that they take measures to scale back flight hours, enhance pilot coaching and enhance the variety of upkeep staff. The ministry stopped wanting issuing formal targets, as a substitute leaving it for airways to develop their very own proposals.
Jeju Air mentioned it could scale back the common every day flight time of its planes to 12.8 hours from 14 per day, in response to the ministry. The service may also add 41 upkeep staff to extend the entire quantity to 350, it mentioned.
The crash, through 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 folks have canceled their journeys within the weeks since, in response to native media.
Whereas there isn’t a proof indicating that poor upkeep or pilot error was an element within the crash, investigators will have a look at all elements of the flight. That features the airplane’s repair history and whether or not a chicken strike knocked out its engines and electrical techniques.
Airways that ignore security will likely be shunned by vacationers and disappear, the ministry mentioned in a press release. It mentioned it could droop flight certificates for carriers that don’t adhere to security requirements.
Low-cost carriers have grown quickly up to now 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.
A number of the authorities’s proposed security measures might have a restricted affect on security, however might assist in methods akin to lowering the workloads of pilots and different staff to lower the danger of fatigue resulting in human error, aviation specialists mentioned.
“There’s not that a lot you are able to do in an hour apart from fundamental security checks,” mentioned Kwon Bo Hun, a professor of aviation security administration at Far East College, referring to Jeju Air’s resolution 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-about secure, but often require more maintenance.
The federal government’s calls for might additionally increase prices for airways that compete to supply cut-price journey. Rising the dimensions of upkeep crews, as an illustration, would enhance 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 safety 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 current 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 techniques after they overheated.
