On November 14, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport said its administrative deposition deliberation committee decided to ground Asiana Airlines flights to San Francisco for 45 days. (image: Steve Rhodes/flickr)
SEOUL, Nov. 15 (Korea Bizwire) — The Korean government will ban Asiana Airlines from flying to San Francisco International Airport for 45 days as a punishment for causing a runway crash in July last year that killed three.
On November 14, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport said its administrative deposition deliberation committee decided to ground Asiana Airlines flights to San Francisco for 45 days.
The committee said given the severity of the accident the flight ban must be extended to 90 days but was reduced by half in consideration of the flight crews’ selfless sacrifice at the crash site to minimize casualties.
As a result, Asiana must endure a serious damage to its corporate image as well as losses as high as 15 billion won from the measure. Currently Asiana flies a 295-seater Boeing 777 aircraft once a day to San Francisco.
To this, Asiana Airlines responded by releasing a statement, “Unless airlines cause significant inconvenience to passengers or harm public interest, punishment may be in the form of monetary fines instead of flight ban. Despite the fact that the accident was caused not by the airline’s negligence or violation of safety rules as was clearly shown by NTSB investigations, punitive measures like the flight ban wouldn’t help improve overall safety of air travel.”
The air carrier also said it would appeal to the decision.
By Sean Chung (schung10@koreabizwire.com)
