Almost Fatal: Korean Air A330 Crash-lands at Cebu

October 24, 2022

Last night, a Korean Air Airbus A330 crash-landed at Cebu Airport and overran the runway, coming to a stop in the grass field infront. An emergency evacuation was ordered and all passengers made it out of the aircraft safely, with only some minor injuries and no fatalities. What happened?

At 7.20pm local time, Korean Air flight KE631 departed from Seoul Incheon Airport, bound for Mactan-Cebu Airport in Cebu, Philippines. The flight was uneventful at the time. There were 162 passengers and 11 crew onboard, according to the airline.

At 10.18pm local time, the Korean Air plane made a landing attempt at Cebu, but was unsuccessful due to low visibility and bad weather. The plane decided to go around, and reattempted landing at 10.25pm, but aborted the landing once again.

The plane was kept in a holding pattern for 1 hour off the coast of Cebu, before coming in for another landing at 11.08pm. The plane could not stop in time and overran the runway threshold. Emergency services attended to the scene, and all passengers evacuated safely.

The flight was operated by HL7525, a 24.5-year-old Airbus A330-300 delivered to the airline in June 1998. According to data from planespotters.net, the aircraft has been written off due to a rip in the forward lower fuselage away and a hole in the upper fuselage from the runway overrun.

Following the incident, all flights departing and arriving at Cebu were cancelled. Flights already in the air were diverted to Davao, Angeles City or Manila.

The inbound leg of the flight, KE632 was delayed till the following afternoon awaiting the repatriation aircraft, a Boeing 777.

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Written by: Sohail Sawlani
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