Agencies/Seoul
South Korean authorities said yesterday they planned an “urgent competence inspection” of Asiana Airlines pilots flying Airbus A320 planes, the day after one of the planes skidded off a runway in Japan.
South Korea’s Yonhap news agency said the measures would affect 489 pilots, 370 of them with Asiana and the remainder with its low-cost subsidiary, Air Busan. The two airlines are the only operators of the A320 based in South Korea.
The Asiana flight hit a 6m tall transmission device ahead of the runway as it landed on Tuesday night in the Japanese city of Hiroshima, Yonhap reported. The plane skidded off the runway.
Asiana said 18 of the 73 passengers had suffered minor injuries. Nearly two years ago, an Asiana Boeing 777 crashed at San Francisco’s main airport when its tail struck a sea wall short of the runway, killing three people and injuring more than 180. The US National Transportation Safety Board cited “mismanagement” by pilots as the probable cause.
Aerial footage from Hiroshima airport in western Japan showed the localiser — a large gate-like structure, 6m high that sits around 300m from the start of the runway — splintered, with debris spread towards the landing strip.
Sets of wheel marks were visible on the grass area in front of the runway, while large fragments of the localiser — part of the instrument landing system — were on the tarmac.
Several hundred metres away, skid marks showed the Airbus A320 had careered off the runway Tuesday and rotated more than 90 degrees.
Those on board flight OZ162 from Incheon, near Seoul, to Hiroshima, spoke of terror and confusion.
“There was smoke coming out and some of the oxygen masks fell down. Cabin attendants were in such a panic and I thought ‘We are going to die’,” a woman told Japanese networks late Tuesday, adding some people were bleeding.
A man wearing a neck brace said he “saw flames, and smoke filled the plane”.
All 73 passengers and eight crew evacuated safely but 27 people were injured, Japanese officials said.
The airport is equipped with a sophisticated landing system, which can provide full assistance on direction and altitude when planes approach from the west, it said.
But the Asiana plane was approaching from the east because of wind direction, preventing the pilot — reportedly a veteran from South Korea — from being able to make full use of the system, media said.
The South Korean carrier said 18 passengers — 14 Japanese, two Koreans and two Chinese — had been hurt. Only one of them had to stay overnight in hospital. There was no explanation for the discrepancy between Asiana and Japanese authorities.
“Asiana Airlines apologises for causing concern to the passengers and the people over the accident,” it said in a statement.
“Asiana Airlines has immediately set up a response team to cope with the aftermath.
“As to the determination of the cause of the accident, we will cooperate as closely as possible with the relevant authorities.”
The Asiana Airlines airplane which skidded off the runway.
