The Airbus A321 jet caught fire near the cabin’s back seats, Korea’s transport ministry said
A fire broke out on a plane operated by Air Busan Co. at a local airport in South Korea late Tuesday, with everyone on board evacuated.
Flight BX391, departing from Gimhae International Airport, was preparing to take off from Busan for Hong Kong, Korea’s National Fire Agency said in a text message. The Airbus A321 jet caught fire near the cabin’s back seats, Korea’s transport ministry said. Authorities are investigating, it added.
The incident comes a month after the fatal crash of a Jeju Air Co. plane, which killed almost everyone on board and was South Korea’s worst-ever aviation accident. The Dec. 29 crash of the Boeing Co. 737-800 jet sparked an array of inspections into the country’s safety standards and facilities at airports. The jet skidded on its belly off the runway and exploded after hitting a concrete structure supporting the localizer, minutes after the control tower warned of bird strikes.
As a result, the government ordered budget airlines to reduce flight hours and hire more maintenance workers, while airport operators were directed to extend runway safety areas and redesign infrastructure. Runway end safety areas at nine airports will now be lengthened to 240 meters (787 feet) and structures holding the localizer — an instrument used to guide landing planes — should be changed to easily breakable materials.
The Airbus jet in the Air Busan incident was an older A321ceo model. According to Planespotters.net data, it was just over 17 years old and was transferred to the Air Busan fleet from parent Asiana Airlines Inc. in 2017.
Airbus said in a statement that it has dispatched a team of specialists to assist safety officials investigating the incident. It delivered the plane in November 2007.
Authorities received the call at 10:26 p.m. local time and 45 fire fighters helped to extinguish the fire, according to the National Fire Agency. All 169 passengers, six crew and a maintenance worker on board were evacuated via slides. Three passengers were injured but they’re not in a critical condition.
Air Busan is a low-cost carrier that operates domestic and international flights to and from Busan, a large port city in the country’s south.