SIA, Korean Air planes in near-miss incident at Incheon

SINGAPORE — A Singapore Airlines (SIA) plane about to take off from Seoul in South Korea was forced to make an emergency stop last Thursday (May 5), after another plane unexpectedly crossed into the runway. 

None of the 186 passengers and 18 crew members on flight SQ16 were injured, though the incident damaged the tyres of the Boeing 777-300ER jet.

In response to questions from TODAY, SIA said the passengers had to “disembark from the aircraft on the taxiway” when the incident “resulted in the deflation of a number of tyres on the Boeing 777-300ER”.

Flight SQ16, which was bound for San Francisco in the United States, aborted its takeoff from Seoul’s Incheon Airport on May 5, following instructions that were received from air-traffic control.

The Aviation Herald reported that the plane was at first cleared for takeoff around 6.07pm (Seoul time), and was reportedly travelling around 193kmh when air-traffic control suddenly cancelled the takeoff clearance because a Korean Air aircraft was taxiing onto the runway. The Korean aircraft, flight KE-929, was bound for Saint Petersburg, Russia.

The SQ pilot aborted the takeoff on instructions from South Korean air traffic control officers. 

“A number of main tyres deflated about 270m from the runway threshold and disabled the (SIA) aircraft,” The Aviation Herald reported.

Online news site Korea IT Times reported that both planes were just 1.7km apart before they came to a complete stop. The website also reported that the pilots of the Korean Air Airbus flight had ignored air traffic controllers’ instructions.

Affected passengers were provided with hotel accommodation during their wait for departure. 

The aircraft left Seoul’s Incheon Airport for San Francisco on May 6 at around 1pm (Seoul time) after a change of tyres — a delay of about 19 hours from the original scheduled departure time.

The Korean Air flight that sparked the scare left Incheon Airport about 100 minutes after the incident on May 5. 

The Korean Ministry of Transportation has launched an investigation to determine the exact circumstances behind the incident, aviation news site AirLive reported. 

The investigation report is expected in two to three weeks, The Korea Times said.