The Jeju Air plane crash in Muan on Sunday was unusual for South Korea, a country which has had a strong recent aviation safety record after a spate of deadly air accidents in the 1990s and earlier.
It also appeared to be the first fatal crash for Jeju Air, a popular low-cost South Korean carrier that was founded in 2005 and flies dozens of routes domestically and across Asia.
“We lower our heads in apology to everyone who suffered in the accident,” Jeju Air said in a brief statement posted on its website. “We will do everything we can to deal with this accident.”
Last year, the airline, named after the island of Jeju in the country’s south where it has its headquarters, received a safety grade of A, or “very good,” from the South Korean Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport’s annual review of domestic airlines. The score is based on the number of accidents or near accidents. The highest grade any airline got that year was A++, and the lowest was B+.
In 2021, the South Korean authorities investigated Jeju Air after one of its planes flew despite having a defect, according to reports in the domestic news media. The plane had damaged the tip of a wing during landing, but the crew failed to notice the damage, and the plane took off again, the Korea Herald reported. That year, the airline got a C for safety.
It was unlikely that the crash was related to broader aviation safety issues in South Korea, said Keith Tonkin, the managing director of Aviation Projects, an aviation consulting company in Brisbane, Australia. “South Korea’s safety record is very good.”
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