Korean Air Flight 803
Korean Air Flight 803, was a DC-10 flight which, on 27 July 1989, crashed while attempting to land in Tripoli, Libya. Out of the 199 passengers and crew onboard, 74 people were killed, and an additional six people on the ground were also killed. The accident was the deadliest aviation disaster to occur in Libya at the time. It is still the third-deadliest accident in Libya, after Libyan Arab Airlines Flight 1103 in 1992 with 159 fatalities, and Afriqiyah Airways Flight 771 in 2009 with 103 fatalities.
Background
Aircraft
The aircraft involved was a McDonnell Douglas DC-10-30. It was built in 1973 and first flew on 17 September. During the test period, the aircraft was registered as N54634. The aircraft was powered by three General Electric CF6-50C2 turbofan engines. In 1974, the aircraft was sold to Air Siam, and it was registered in Thailand as HS-VGE on 25 November. In 1977, the airliner was sold to Korean Air, and received the Korean registration HL7328 on 25 February 1977. The aircraft had 49,025 flight hours and 11,440 take-off and landing cycles.Crew
The captain was Kim Ho-jung, the first officer was Choi Jae-hong, and the flight engineer was Hyun Gyu-hwan.Accident
Flight 803 was a scheduled international passenger service from Seoul, South Korea to Tripoli, Libya with intermediate stops in Bangkok, Thailand and Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. There were a total of 18 crew members and 181 passengers, mostly South Korean workers, who were returning to Libya for construction work after their home leave. The weather at the time of the accident consisted of heavy fog and visibility was between. Nevertheless, in such circumstances, the flight crew decided to continue the approach. On approach to runway 27, the DC-10 dropped below the glide path, then at 7:05, it crashed into two buildings, broke into three sections, and burst into flames. 90% of the on-board fatalities were attributed to the fire, with the remaining 10% attributed to impact shock The accident site was in an orchard short of runway 27. 80 people died in the accident, including six people on the ground.There were 189 South Koreans, seven Libyans, and three Japanese nationals on board Flight 803. Two South Korean companies, Daewoo and Donga Construction Co, had multiple South Korean employees on board.
Aftermath
After the accident, Flight 803's captain Kim Ho-jung was quoted as saying - "The airport was shrouded in dense fog and visibility was poor when I approached. I lost contact with the control tower for 15 minutes before the crash." Libya's official news agency JANA reported that a Soviet airliner one hour before Flight 803 had rerouted to Malta rather than land in the fog. Also, the instrument landing system at Tripoli International Airport wasn't working at the time of the accident.A Libyan court found the captain and first officer guilty of neglect in December 1990. They were given prison sentences of two years and eighteen months respectively. In the case of the first officer the sentence was suspended.