1. Factual Information
1.1 History of Flight
On August 6, 1997, about 0142:26 Guam local time,[1] Korean Air flight 801, a Boeing 747-3B5B (747-300), Korean registration HL7468, operated by Korean Air Company, Ltd., crashed at Nimitz Hill, Guam.[2] Flight 801 departed from Kimpo International Airport, Seoul, Korea, with 2 pilots, 1 flight engineer, 14 flight attendants, and 237 passengers[3] on board. The airplane had been cleared to land on runway 6 Left at A.B. Won Guam International Airport, Agana, Guam, and crashed into high terrain about 3 miles southwest of the airport. Of the 254 persons on board, 228 were killed,[4], and 23 passengers and 3 flight attendants survived the accident with serious injuries.[5] The airplane was destroyed by impact forces and a postcrash fire. Flight 801 was operating in U.S. airspace as a regularly scheduled international passenger service flight under the Convention on International Civil Aviation and the provisions of 14 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) Part 129 and was on an instrument flight rules (IFR) flight plan.
According to Korean Air company records, the flight crew arrived at the dispatch center in the Korean Air headquarters building in Seoul about 2 hours before the scheduled departure time of 2105 (2005 Seoul local time) on August 5, 1997. The original flight plan for flight 801 listed a different captain's name. The captain aboard the accident flight had initially been scheduled to fly to Dubai, United Arab Emirates; however, because the accident captain did not have adequate rest for that trip, he was reassigned the shorter trip to Guam.[6]
According to Korean Air personnel, the flight crewmembers collected the trip paperwork, conducted a self-briefing, and received a briefing from the assigned supervisor of flying (SOF).[7] Flight 801 departed the gate about 2127 and was airborne about 2153.
- ↑ Unless otherwise indicated, all times are Guam local time, based on a 24-hour clock.
- ↑ The island of Guam is a U.S. territory in the Pacific Ocean and is part of the Mariana Islands. Guam has an elected governor and a 21-member unicameral legislature. U.S. Naval and Air Force installations make up 35 percent of the island's area.
- ↑ Six of the passengers were Korean Air flight attendants who were "deadheading," that is, traveling off duty.
- ↑ Three passengers (including one deadheading flight attendant) initially survived the accident with serious injuries but died within 30 days after the accident. According to 14 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) Section 830.2, such fatalities are to be included in the total number of fatal injuries. A passenger with serious injuries died at the U.S. Army Medical Center in San Antonio, Texas, on October 10, 1997, but is not officially listed as a fatality because the passenger's death occurred more than 30 days after the accident.
- ↑ See table 1 in section 1.2 for the injury chart.
- ↑ The captain began a scheduled round trip to Hong Kong on August 3, 1997, but his return flight was delayed because of inclement weather. As a result, the captain had to remain overnight in Hong Kong and fly back to Seoul (as a pilot) on the morning of August 4.
- ↑ The self- and SOF briefings are required parts of Korean Air's flight crew predeparture procedures. See section 1.17.3 for additional information.
