Korean B744 at Jeju on Jan 25th 2016, dropped parts of engine cowl on touchdown

Last Update: October 16, 2017 / 15:01:47 GMT/Zulu time

Bookmark this article

Photo of Korean Airlines HL7460, Boeing 747-400 — Korean Airlines HL7460, Boeing 747-400 (Photo credit: byeangel / Flickr / License: CC by-sa)

Incident Facts

Date of incident
Jan 25, 2016

Classification
Incident

Airline
Korean Airlines

Flight number
KE-1275

Departure
Seoul Gimpo, South Korea

Destination
Jeju, South Korea

Aircraft Registration
HL7460

Aircraft Type
Boeing 747-400

ICAO Type Designator
B744

A Korean Airlines Boeing 747-400, registration HL7460 performing flight KE-1275 from Seoul Gimpo to Jeju (South Korea), landed on Jeju's runway 25 when the cowl on engine #4 (PW4056, outboard right hand) fractured and parts of the cowl separated from the aircraft. The aircraft rolled out without further incident. The ARAIB later reported the aircraft sustained substantial damage.

The runway was closed for about an hour until the debris was removed.

On Oct 16th 2017 South Korea's ARAIB released their final report in Korean concluding the probable causes of the accident were:

Upon landing on Jeju's runway 25 the #4 engine collided with a snow pile, that was about 1.5 meters high at the right hand side of the runway within the runway.

There should be no snow piles on the runway due to inadequate snow removal by Jeju's Airport Authority.

The ARAIB reported that between Jan 23rd and Jan 25th 2016 there had been snow falls requiring snow removal at least 16 times on both runway 07/25 and 13/31. This had even led to a temporary closure of the airport on Jan 25th 2016 between 12:00 and 15:00L due to a snow storm warning. Following the cancellation of the snow storm warning both runways were cleared again, however, due to the repeated snow removals a pile of snow had accumulated in the area of the crossing runway 07/25 and 13/31 rising up to 1.5 meters (59 inches) above the runway surface.

HL7460 was performing the ILS DME approach to runway 25 at around 22:50L, winds were reported from 300 degrees at 10 knots. The aircraft crossed the runway threshold with the right wing low applying de-crabbing landing methode, touched down normally 1805 feet down the runway and the right hand outboard engine collided with the snow bank shortly afterwards about 1920 feet down the runway.

The crew, while de-crabbing the aircraft, had already selected all 4 thrust reversers open but received indication of abnormal engine thrust reverser status for the #4 engine, applied reverse thrust only on engines #2 and #3 and stopped the aircraft. The crew subsequently confirmed the N1 as well as the oil pressure of the engine #4 had dropped to zero, performed the severe engine damage checklist. A subsequent visual examination of the engine showed several parts were missing, the cowl, right hand engine pylon, right hand wing and flaps were damaged.

The ARAIB analysed that the lowest part of engine #4 was about 90 cm (35.4 inches) above the runway surface.

The ARAIB released 3 safety recommentations to the airport authority and the regional authority overseeing Jeju Airport to ensure, that snow piles after snow removal do not exceed the maximum permissable height.