The Boeing 737-800 that crashed at Muan International Airport on Sunday had visited eight different airports in less than two days.
Investigations into the crash which occurred Sunday morning at Muan International Airport, South Korea, are continuing. If the airline Jeju Air, involved in the incident, refutes the hypothesis of a failure in the maintenance of its fleet, the aircraft which transported 181 people – for 179 deaths – had made 13 flights in total during the 48 hours before the accident, reports the South Korean agency Yonhap .
This figure is particularly high, even in comparison with the country's five other airlines. The plane visited five international airports in this time: Beijing in China, Bangkok in Thailand, Kota Kinabalu in Malaysia, Nagasaki in Japan, Taipei in Taiwan. He also visited three South Korean airports: Incheon, Jeju and Muan.
Reported by month, Jeju Air's operating rate far surpasses its competitors on the Korean Peninsula. Jeju Air's average monthly operation rate per aircraft was 418 hours in the third quarter, while Jin Air and T'Way averaged 371 hours and 386 hours, respectively. Among the more upscale airlines, Korean Air had an average of 355 hours, while Asiana Airlines had 335 hours for its aircraft.
“It’s hard to say that this plane was overused”
Jeju Air Director of Management Support Song Kyung-hoon said on Monday that“it is difficult to say that this aircraft was overused since regular maintenance is carried out strictly according to the planned schedule and all servicing before and after each departure is carried out scrupulously”.
Experts are still trying to explain the deadly crash, South Korea's most serious air accident on its soil. Collision with birds, failure of the landing gear, the presence of a solid wall at the end of the runway: no hypothesis is set aside.
A video broadcast by local channel MBC shows the plane, a Boeing 737-800 from the South Korean low-cost airline Jeju Air, landing on its belly at Muan airport, its engines spewing smoke, before hit a wall and burst into flames. Of the 181 passengers from Bangkok — 175 travelers and six crew members — only a hostess and a steward survived.
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