Second Jeju Air flight suffers landing gear problem

SEOUL, South Korea (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 most deadly 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 United States investigators, possibly including 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.

In Sunday’s crash at Muan, the Boeing 737-800 carrying 181 people made a mayday call and belly-landed before crashing into a barrier and bursting into flames.

“Maintenance records of key systems such as engines and landing gear will be thoroughly reviewed for 101 aircraft operated by six airlines using the same model as the accident aircraft,” Joo said, adding it would run to 3 January.

Everyone on board Jeju Air Flight 2216 was killed, save two flight attendants pulled from the wreckage.

Flags flew at half-mast on Monday as the country has started seven days of national mourning, with the acting president flying to the crash site in southwestern Muan for a memorial as teams of US and South Korean investigators raced to establish what caused Sunday’s disaster.

Officials initially cited a bird strike as a likely cause of the crash, which flung passengers from the plane and left it “almost completely destroyed,” according to fire officials.

South Korea has a solid air safety record and both black boxes from Flight 2216 — the flight data recorder and the cockpit voice recorder — have been found.