Korean Air Flight 2033

33°30′59″N 126°30′02″E / 33.51639°N 126.50056°E / 33.51639; 126.50056AircraftAircraft typeAirbus A300B4-622ROperatorKorean AirIATA flight No.KE2033ICAO flight No.KAL2033Call signKOREAN AIR 2033RegistrationHL7296Flight originKimpo International Airport, Seoul, South KoreaDestinationJeju International Airport, Jeju, South KoreaOccupants160Passengers152Crew8Fatalities0Injuries8Survivors160

Korean Air Flight 2033 was a scheduled passenger flight from Seoul to Jeju, South Korea. On 10 August 1994, the Airbus A300 serving the route overran the runway on landing at Jeju International Airport in poor weather and burst into flames. All 160 people on board escaped without serious injury, but the aircraft was destroyed.^[1]

History of the flight

On the morning of 10 August, Korean Air Flight 2033 departed from Gimpo International Airport in Seoul for a one hour and ten minute domestic flight to Jeju. On board were 152 passengers and 8 crew.^[2]

On arrival at Jeju, shortly after 11:00 local time, the weather was poor, with driving rain and winds of up to 56 kn (64 mph) brought about by Typhoon Doug.^[3] The crew aborted their first approach. On their second attempt, the flaps were selected at a reduced setting (CONF3) due to the risk of windshear, which meant that the approach speed was higher than usual.^[1]

The aircraft touched down more than halfway down the runway, and was unable to stop within the remaining distance. It overran the end of the runway at a speed of 104 kn (120 mph), struck the airport wall and a guard post at 30 kn (35 mph), broke up and caught fire. All crew and passengers managed to safely evacuate via the emergency slides, before the fire consumed most of the aircraft. Only eight of the occupants suffered injuries, all minor ones.^[1]

Aircraft and crew

The aircraft involved was a twin-jet Airbus A300B4-622R with South-Korean registration HL7296. It was delivered in 1990, and at the time of the accident was less than four years old.^[1] The captain for the flight was 52-year-old Canadian Barry Edward Woods and the first officer was 36-year-old Korean Chung Chan Kyu (Hangul: 정찬규, RR: Jeong Chan-gyu).^[2]

Aftermath

External videos
CVR Korean Air 2033 on YouTube

In the days after the crash, both Woods and Chung were arrested on suspicion of causing the accident by fighting over the controls. According to South Korean authorities, the first officer had attempted to initiate a go-around while the captain was determined to land the aircraft and bring it to a full stop.^[2][4]

Cockpit voice recorder transcript

F/O: Runway in sight, runway in sight. CAP: I got it, I got it. F/O: Okay. Right side? Right? (GPWS warning: 400 [feet]) CAP: Yeah….Okay. Give me the, uh, four hundred [feet]…three…minimum sink rate. (GPWS warning: 300 [feet]) F/O: Sink rate, sink rate. (GPWS warning: 200 [feet]) CAP: Okay, okay. (GPWS warning: 100 [feet]) F/O: One hundred [feet]. Speed? CAP: Yeah. F/O: Go around. (GPWS warning: 50…40…30) CAP: Get your hands…. Get off! Get off! Tell me what it is. get off. (GPWS warning: 20 [feet]) F/O: Go around? CAP: No, no! (GPWS warning: 10…5) (Contact with the runway) F/O: Okay reversers! CAP: Break! CAP: What are you doing?! CAP: You're gonna kill us! CAP: Okay don't pull the yoke! (Sound of impact) (GPWS warning: Master Warning chime, plays until ending F/O: [I wanted to] go around…go around. CAP: Yeah but we were on…. we were on the runway. Why did you pull us off? Okay, okay. We got to get out of here. Open your window. (Sound of opening the cockpit window) CAP: Get your [evacuation] slide. Why did you pull us off? We had full reverse on. Pull the fire handles. Pull 'em. F/O: Fire pulls. CAP: Okay, get out. Get out. (END OF RECORDING)

References