Over 200 Korean Air Passengers Return Home... Passenger Plane with Engine Defect Undergoes Local Maintenance

[Asia Economy Reporter Yoo Hyun-seok] Passengers of the Korean Air passenger plane that made an emergency landing at Baku Airport in Azerbaijan due to an engine defect have arrived at Incheon International Airport.

According to Korean Air on the 11th, a temporary flight to transport passengers of the engine-defect aircraft departed from Baku Airport at around 8:35 PM (local time) the previous day and arrived at Incheon Airport at around 9:05 AM on the same day.

All 215 Korean passengers and 10 crew members who were on board the aircraft that experienced the engine defect during the flight returned on the temporary flight. Originally scheduled to arrive at 10:30 AM the previous day, these passengers entered the country one day later.

Korean Air had previously coordinated with the Incheon Airport Quarantine Office regarding the extension of the validity period for PCR (polymerase chain reaction) tests upon entry, so the PCR negative certificates were accepted even though the 48-hour validity period had expired.

Flight KE9956 (A330-200), which departed from Istanbul, Turkey, at 6:25 PM on the 9th and was heading to Incheon International Airport, detected an abnormality in the aircraft 1 hour and 50 minutes after takeoff and made an emergency landing at nearby Baku Airport.

No passengers were injured during the emergency landing. After the emergency landing at Baku Airport, Korean Air moved the passengers to a local hotel and immediately deployed a temporary flight. The temporary flight, an A330-200 of the same model as the engine-defect aircraft, departed from Incheon Airport to Baku Airport at 2:14 PM the previous day.

Korean Air sent maintenance personnel and equipment on the temporary flight. Currently, inspections and maintenance are underway on the engine-defect aircraft at Baku Airport. A new engine will be transported to the site via a separate cargo plane and the engine will be replaced. The aircraft is scheduled to return to Korea after maintenance is completed.