Minister of Land, Infrastructure and Transport Park Sang-woo announced on the 14th that “we will immediately begin improvement work” on concrete and steel structures near the runways installed at seven domestic airports, including Muan Airport, where the Jeju Air plane disaster occurred.
Minister Park said this in the ‘Report on Current Issues Related to the December 29 Passenger Plane Disaster’ held at the Land, Infrastructure and Transport Committee of the National Assembly on this day, saying, “I don’t think it is right for such a facility to exist.”
The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport announced the previous day that localizers (azimuth facilities) at seven airports across the country are installed on structures that are not easily broken, and that they will improve them by the end of the year. However, when the National Land, Infrastructure and Transport Commission pointed out that “improvement work is too slow,” it was decided to move up the period.
Regarding the criticism that Muan Airport had insufficient manpower and equipment to prepare for bird collisions, Minister Park said, “The number of flights was the standard (for manpower input), so even if there were a lot of birds, there were times when less manpower was deployed.” He added, “The frequency of bird activity will increase in the future.” He responded, “We will set standards to strengthen human resources activities accordingly.” He said he would secure the latest equipment such as thermal imaging cameras and bird detection radar.
Minister Park announced that he is considering installing a ‘runway departure prevention system (EMAS)’. EMAS is a facility that reduces the speed of aircraft that veer off the runway by covering the floor with a fragile material. Currently, there is no airport in Korea with EMAS installed. In addition, Minister Park admitted that the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport’s explanation that the concrete berm at Muan Airport was ‘installed in accordance with regulations’ was insufficient, calling it a “lazy response.”
Reporter Kim Ho-kyung [email protected]
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