S. Korea to prohibit operation of airlines in case of accident

SEJONG, Nov. 26 (Yonhap) -- South Korea will move to significantly improve its aviation safety that will include a temporary halt of operations for airlines involved in accidents, the government said Tuesday.

Following its final decision, expected at the end of the year, the country will also prohibit the operation of airlines on the blacklist of unsafe airlines, according to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport.

The move follows the crash landing of a passenger aircraft operated by South Korea's Asiana Airlines at San Francisco International Airport in July that led to the deaths of three passengers.

"The comprehensive measure tabled by the Aviation Safety Committee consists of some 40 separate tasks that include the establishment of safety management by airlines, strengthening the safety of low-cost carriers, and introduction of a safety certification system for helicopters and small aircraft," the ministry said in a press release.

The recommendations will officially be submitted on Friday for consideration by the ministry, a ministry official said.

According to the ministry, the number of airline accidents more than doubled over the past five years to 23 between 2009 and 2013 from 11 during the 2004-2008 period with the number of accidents involving human casualties jumping to seven from just one over the cited period.

Of the total 34 accidents over the past 10 years, 21 cases, or 64 percent, involved helicopters or small aircraft.

Still, such a rise may have been somewhat inevitable as the number of flights departing from South Korea spiked over 50 percent from 156,916 in 2004 to 234,668 in 2012.

In 2012, South Korea reported 8.5 accidents per 1 million departures, more than double the global average of 3.2 per million, according to the ministry.

To help cut the accident rate to the world's lowest of 2.66 accidents per million departures by 2017, the safety committee recommended the government temporarily suspend the operation of airlines involved in accidents.

Currently, an airline is usually fined 500 million won (US$471,000) if the number of deaths in an accident does not exceed five, according to the ministry.

Source:   http://english.yonhapnews.co.kr