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| Korean Air flight 9956 makes an emergency landing at Heydar Aliyev International Airport in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, due to an engine defect less than two hours after its departure from Istanbul, July 9 (local time). Yonhap |
By Kim Hyun-bin
A Korean Air passenger plane flying from Istanbul to Incheon International Airport made an emergency landing in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, due to a defect in one of its engines, the carrier said, Sunday.
"Korean Air flight KE9956 (A330-200), which departed from Istanbul International Airport at 6:25 p.m. on Saturday (local time), had to make an emergency landing at Haidar Aliyev Airport in Baku about 90 minutes after takeoff. The flight was scheduled to arrive at Incheon International Airport at 10:30 a.m. Sunday, but was forced to land at Baku airport, the nearest runway, after an engine defect message came up," Korean Air said.
Korean Air explained that technically, even if one engine fails, the aircraft can fly for three hours, and that the passenger plane landed within two hours after the defect was detected, according to safety procedures.
Korean Air explained that a vibration message was detected in the second engine on the right side of the plane. The captain of the aircraft announced in an in-flight broadcast that one of the aircraft's engines had failed. Some passengers witnessed sparks coming from an engine, and fire trucks were reportedly on standby as the plane was landing at the airport. Passengers seated on the right side of the aircraft reportedly felt vibrations and noise as well as heat.
The aircraft was carrying 215 passengers and 10 crew members. Korean Air dispatched staff from its Istanbul branch to Baku and provided in-flight blankets to passengers waiting at the airport. Korean Air went through the process of issuing entry visas through a local operator, and passengers were transferred to a hotel in Baku.
Korean Air sent another A330-200 aircraft to transport the passengers back to Korea. The temporary flight departed from Incheon at 12:05 p.m. on the same day and is scheduled to return to Incheon at 7:05 a.m. Monday.
Korean Air is negotiating with the Incheon Airport Quarantine Center to extend the validity period of the passengers' PCR and rapid antigen test results upon entry. When arriving at Incheon Airport a day late, most passengers exceed the PCR test deadline of 48 hours due to the delay.
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