Subscribe
E-Paper
By Lee Kyung-min
The captain of an aircraft operated by local budget carrier Eastar Jet is facing a pilot license suspension for ordering a crewmember to "hold tight" a defective door during a flight.
While flying from Incheon to Jeju in January of last year, the captain found a defect in an aircraft door and made an emergency landing at Cheongju Airport. However, he failed to follow due safety procedures and continued on to Jeju, telling a crewmember to hold on to a door knob.
At Jeju Airport, the captain had maintenance workers merely put duct tape on the door, and then flew to Gimpo Airport, where the airplane received proper maintenance.
The captain was supposed to record the incident in a flight log, but failed to do so. It is unknown how many passengers were on the flights.
Such negligence was made public after the Seoul Administrative Court ruled Thursday against the captain, who filed a suit to nullify a 30-day license suspension slapped on him by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport.
"His negligence posed a grave danger to aircraft safety," the judge said. "Also, the deliberate attempt to delete or fabricate a safety report is tantamount to discarding an opportunity to correct a minor problem before it becomes a bigger one."
