Thirteen passengers aboard a Korea Airlines flight to Taiwan were taken to the hospital after their Boeing plane fell more than 25,000 feet due to a failure in the cabin pressurization system.
The rapid change in cabin pressure caused several passengers to suffer headaches, hyperventilation, eardrum pain and nosebleeds, according to Korea JoongAng Daily, citing Korean officials. Upon landing back in Incheon, thirteen passengers were taken to hospital as a result of the incident, although no serious injuries were reported.
After the incident that occurred on Saturday, Korean Airlines flight KE189 had to make an emergency landing at Incheon airport, near the capital of South Korea.
This is just the latest in a series of reported defects in Boeing planes, with the embattled company facing growing criticism over its planes and safety protocols since January.
The flight had taken off from Incheon International Airport, near Seoul, on Saturday at 4:45 p.m. local time and was scheduled to arrive at Taicheung International Airport in Taiwan about two hours later, but surprisingly had to return to the starting point. , just 50 minutes after takeoff, when the pilots detected a failure in the plane’s cabin pressurization system.
The plane subsequently fell from an altitude of 35,000 feet to less than 10,000 feet within a span of ten minutes, according to aircraft tracking website Flightradar24.
The plane was a Boeing 737 Max 8, according to Korea JoongAng Daily.
Passengers had to don oxygen masks that dropped from the ceiling, and children on board cried as the plane began its rapid descent, the Taipei Times reported. They landed at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday in Incheon and at 10:30 a.m. on Sunday, June 23, Korean Air used a different plane to complete the flight to Taichung, the airline said, which apologized for the incident and is investigating the cause of the accident. operation of the ship. (YO)
