Pilot Union Federation: "Immediately Remove Obstacles to Localizers at 7 Airports"

"Regret Over Government's Failure to Take Substantial Removal Action"

The Korea Federation of Pilots' Unions expressed deep regret over the retention of azimuth facilities (localizers) at seven airports nationwide and urged their immediate removal.

Firefighters are searching for belongings at the site of the Jeju Air passenger plane collision and explosion accident that occurred last December at Muan International Airport in Jeollanam-do. Photo by Kang Jin-hyung

In an official letter sent to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport on the 14th, the federation stated, "More than a month has passed since the Jeju Air disaster at Muan International Airport, yet the removal of the localizer aviation obstacles, which were the direct cause of the accident, is being delayed."

Last month, the Ministry conducted a special safety inspection of airports nationwide and identified nine localizer facilities, including concrete mounds, at seven airports such as Muan Airport that could pose safety threats, and announced improvement measures.

Regarding this, the federation pointed out, "Substantial removal work has not been carried out," and criticized, "The Ministry's improvement measures lack detailed plans for obstacle removal. There are no concrete measures such as budget management."

They added, "According to a self-conducted survey of 1,426 pilots at the end of last month, 950 (66.1%) urged the 'immediate removal' of these facilities."

The federation believes that removing the localizer obstacles at the seven airports would have a minimal impact on safe flight operations. They argued, "These airports operate performance-based navigation (RNAV) procedures that can replace the precision instrument landing system (ILS) approaches requiring localizers, so except for some adverse weather conditions, there are no operational issues."

They continued, "First, the localizer obstacles should be removed, followed by the phased installation of localizer antennas to create a genuinely safe flight environment," and requested, "The federation should be able to participate as on-site experts in government-led safety improvement consultative bodies such as the Aviation Safety Innovation Committee."