Asiana Airlines Flight 733

Asiana Airlines Flight 733 (OZ733, AAR733, registration HL7229) was a domestic Asiana Airlines passenger flight from Seoul-Gimpo International Airport (SEL at the time, now GMP) to Mokpo Airport (MPK), South Korea. The Boeing 737 crashed on July 26, 1993, in the Hwawon area of Haenam County, South Jeolla Province. The cause of the accident was determined to be pilot error leading to controlled flight into terrain. 68 of the 116 passengers and crew on board were killed.[1]

Asiana Airlines Flight 733
HL7229, the aircraft involved in the accident, at Copenhagen Airport in November 1992
Accident
DateJuly 26, 1993 (1993-07-26)
SummaryControlled flight into terrain due to pilot error
SiteUngeo Mountain, near Mokpo Airport, South Korea
34°42′30.66″N 126°18′38.66″E
Aircraft
Aircraft typeBoeing 737-5L9
OperatorAsiana Airlines
IATA flight No.OZ733
ICAO flight No.AAR733
Call signASIANA 733
RegistrationHL7229
Flight originSeoul-Gimpo International Airport (SEL)
DestinationMokpo Airport (MPK)
Occupants116
Passengers110
Crew6
Fatalities68
Survivors48

Background

Aircraft

The aircraft was a Boeing 737-5L9,[note 1] which made its maiden flight on June 14, 1990. The aircraft was delivered to Maersk Air on June 26 the same year (with registration OY-MAB).[2] The aircraft was then leased to Asiana Airlines on November 26, 1992.[2]

Passengers and crew

There were three Japanese nationals and two American nationals among the passengers, many of whom were vacationers heading for the popular summer resort there off the Yellow Sea, according to the airline.[3] The captain was Hwang In-ki (Korean: 황인기, Hanja: 黃仁淇, RR: Hwang In-gi. M-R: Hwang In'gi), and the first officer was Park Tae-hwan (Korean: 박태환, Hanja: 朴台煥, RR: Bak Tae-hwan. M-R: Pak T'ae-hwan). There were four flight attendants on board.[4]

Nationality Passengers Crew Total
South Korea 105 6 111
Japan 3 - 3
United States 2 - 2
Total 110 6 116

Accident

On July 26, 1993, flight 733 departed Gimpo International Airport in Seoul, bound for Mokpo Airport, for a scheduled arrival at 15:15. At that time, the weather conditions in Mokpo and Yeongam County area consisted of heavy rain and wind. However, the weather conditions were not enough to delay the arrival time. The flight planned to land on runway 06. The aircraft made its first landing attempt at 15:24, which failed, followed by a second landing attempt at 15:28, which also failed. At 15:38, after two failed landing attempts, the aircraft made a third attempt. The twin-engine plane then disappeared from the radar at 15:41. At 15:48 the aircraft crashed into a ridge, Mt. Ungeo, at 800 feet (240 m).[3] At 15:50, the wreckage was found near Masanri, Hwasun County, Haenam County, South Jeolla Province, about 10 kilometers southwest of Mokpo Airport. The news was reported by two surviving passengers who escaped from the wreckage and ran to the Hwawon-myeon branch of the village below the mountain. The passengers reported that the aircraft began to veer off course.[5]

Cause

Asiana Airlines announced that after the accident, the plane was slowed down by three landing attempts and that it appeared to have crashed. Experts said the distance to the runway was 4,900 feet (1,500 m) shorter in one direction only. The runways did not have an ILS installed. Mokpo Airport was only equipped with VOR/DME, resulting in pilots performing excessive landing attempts in some cases, and was a contributing cause of the accident.[6] A prosecution in charge of investigating the accident, announced that the aircraft had disappeared from the normal flight route, and pilots were likely to make an unintentional landing with a misunderstanding.[7] Both pilots were killed in the crash. Chung Jong-hwan, the director general of the Ministry of Transportation, said that captain Hwang's actions caused the crash. An inquiry found pilot error was the cause of the crash when the plane began a descent while it was still passing over a mountain peak.[7] The flight recorders were found and they recorded that after the third attempt, the crew told the control tower that the aircraft was veering off course. According to the cockpit voice recorder (CVR), captain Hwang flew the aircraft below the minimum safe altitude (1,600 feet (490 m)), as he said, "OK, 800 [feet]," a few seconds before impact.[7][8]

Aftermath

This was Asiana Airlines' first fatal (and as of 2021, deadliest) aircraft crash since the airline was established. After the accident, Asiana suspended the Gimpo - Mokpo route.[9] The airline paid compensation to anguished families of the victims.[10] In addition, at the time the transportation department was planning to build Muan International Airport in Muan County, Jeolla Province.[11] When Muan International Airport was opened in 2007, Mokpo Airport was closed and converted into a military base. The accident also caused Asiana to cancel their order of Boeing 757-200's and instead ordered the Airbus A321.[11]

After the crash of flight 733, Asiana Airlines had two more crashes in July 2011 and July 2013, resulting in what the airline referred to as the curse of seven.[12]

Flight 733 was the deadliest aviation accident in South Korea at that time. It was surpassed by Air China Flight 129, which crashed on April 15, 2002, with 129 fatalities. It was also the deadliest accident involving a Boeing 737-500 at that time. It was surpassed by Aeroflot Flight 821, which crashed on September 14, 2008, with 88 fatalities. As of 2021, flight 733 remains the second deadliest crash in both of these categories.[1]

Flight number

Asiana Airlines still uses the flight number 733 on the late evening Seoul-Incheon - Hanoi route.[13]

See also

Notes
  1. The aircraft was a Boeing 737-500 model; Boeing assigns a unique customer code for each company that buys one of its aircraft, which is applied as a suffix to the model number at the time the aircraft is built. The code for Maersk Air is "L9", hence "737-5L9".

References
  1. Ranter, Harro. "ASN Aircraft accident Boeing 737-5L9 HL7229 Mokpo Airport (MPK)". aviation-safety.net. Aviation Safety Network. Retrieved 14 September 2016.
  2. "Accident Asiana Airlines Flight 733 B737 HL7229". airfleets.net. Airfleets aviation. Retrieved 14 September 2016.
  3. "South Korean Plane Crashes in a Storm; 66 Reported Killed". The New York Times. 27 July 1993. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 14 September 2016.
  4. Stormont, Diane (1993-07-27). "62 feared dead in Korean air crash". The Independent. Reuters. Retrieved 2018-10-27.
  5. "Asiana had been trying to clean up a tarnished record". airguideonline.com. Airguide Travel Media and Tech. 7 July 2013. Archived from the original on 2015-07-04.
  6. Won-taek, Shim (1993-07-28). "추락항공기는 조종사가 관제탑 지시 무시" [Pilots ignore control tower instructions for crashed aircraft]. MBC Newsdesk (in Korean). Retrieved 2020-09-10.
  7. Yong-ik, Choi (1993-07-27). "사고여객기 조종사, 허가전 착륙시도[최용익]" [Accident airline pilot, attempted landing before permission]. MBC Newsdesk (in Korean). Retrieved 2020-09-10.
  8. Ki-cheol, Yu (1993-07-30). "교통체신위원회, 아시아나항공 추락사고 음성기록 공개[유기철]" [Traffic Communications Commission reveals audio record of Asiana Airlines crash]. MBC Newsdesk (in Korean). Retrieved 2020-09-10.
  9. Ki-young, Eom (1993-07-29). "박삼구 아시아나항공사장, 서울-목포 운항 무기한 중단[엄기영]" [Asiana Airlines President Park Sam-koo suspends Seoul-Mokpo flights indefinitely]. MBC Newsdesk (in Korean). Retrieved 2020-09-10.
  10. "[한국의 기업변호사] '해상/항공변호사 (4)'..항공사고 빈발" [[Korean corporate lawyer] 'Marine/aviation lawyer (4)'.. frequent aviation accidents]. Korea Economic Daily (in Korean). 1997-11-20. Retrieved 2020-09-10.
  11. Oh, Jeonghwan (1993-07-28). "교통부, 전남 무안군 새공항 건설[오정환]" [Ministry of Transportation to construct a new airport in Muan-gun, Jeollanam-do]. MBC Newsdesk (in Korean). Retrieved 2020-09-10.
  12. "[아시아나 사고] 숫자 '7'의 저주? 괴담 확산" [[Asiana thinking] Curse of number '7'? Spreading ghost stories]. Naver (in Korean). Retrieved 2018-10-01.
  13. "Flight history for Asiana Airlines flight OZ733". Flightradar24. Flightradar24. Retrieved 2020-05-27.
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