Second Jeju Air flight suffers landing gear problem
Recovery teams work at the scene where a Jeju Air Boeing 737-800 series aircraft crashed and burst into flames at Muan International Airport in Muan, some 288 kilometres southwest of Seoul on December 30, 2024. The Boeing 737-800 was carrying 181 people from Thailand to South Korea when it crashed on arrival on December 29, killing everyone aboard -- save two flight attendants pulled from the twisted wreckage of the worst aviation disaster on South Korean soil.
JUNG YEON-JE / AFP
A Jeju Air flight from Seoul on Monday was forced to return after encountering a landing gear problem, the airline said, a day after South Korea's deadliest plane crash.
The Boeing 737-800 involved in the latest incident was the same model as the Jeju Air plane that crashed on Sunday, killing 179 people after coming down without its landing gear engaged.
Jeju Air Flight 7C101, which departed Seoul's Gimpo International Airport for Jeju Island "at around 6:37 a.m., returned to Gimpo at 7:25 a.m." after a landing gear issue was detected shortly after takeoff, the South Korean airline said.
"Shortly after takeoff, a signal indicating a landing gear issue was detected on the aircraft's monitoring system," Song Kyung-hoon, head of the management support office at Jeju Air, told a news conference.
"At 6:57 a.m., the captain communicated with ground control, and after taking additional measures, the landing gear returned to normal operation. However, the decision was made to return to the airport for a thorough inspection of the aircraft."
Local media reported that 21 passengers chose not to board an alternate flight to Jeju, citing concerns over safety and other reasons.
Jeju Air's 41-plane fleet includes 39 Boeing 737-800 aircraft.
Seoul said on Monday it would conduct a special inspection of all 101 Boeing 737-800 planes in operation in the country, with U.S. investigators, possibly including representatives from plane manufacturer Boeing, joining the probe into the crash.
"We are reviewing plans to conduct a special inspection on B737-800 aircraft," said Joo Jong-wan, head of the aviation policy bureau at the South Korean transport ministry.
Joo added that the government plans to "implement rigorous aviation safety inspections in response to the (landing gear) incidents."
In Sunday's crash at Muan, the Boeing 737-800 carrying 181 people from Thailand to South Korea made a mayday call and belly-landed before crashing into a barrier and bursting into flames.
Everyone on board Jeju Air Flight 2216 was killed, except for two flight attendants who were pulled from the wreckage.