impact point and about 1,300 feet from the main wreckage site. The other three engines were all located within the main wreckage site.
All of the engines sustained damage to the fan blades, with the tips and leading edges bent opposite to the direction of rotation. Further, vegetation and dirt had been ingested into the fans and low-pressure compressors of each of the engines. Examination of the rotating parts within each engine revealed evidence of rotational smearing, rubbing, and blade fractures that were consistent with the engines producing power at the time of impact. Further, none of the four engines exhibited any evidence of uncontained failures, case ruptures, or in-flight fires. All of the thrust reverser actuators that were found indicated that the thrust reversers on each of the engines were in the stowed position.
1.13 Medical and Pathological Information
Tissue and fluid samples from both pilots and the flight engineer were transported to the FAA's Civil Aeromedical Institute (CAMI) for toxicology analysis. The CAMI laboratory performed its routine analysis for major drugs of abuse and prescription and over-the-counter medications, and the results were negative. The analysis detected ethanol in the blood and tissue samples of both pilots and the flight engineer, but no ethanol was detected in the vitreous (eyeball) fluid sample taken from the captain. All specimens were noted in the laboratory report to have been received by CAMI in a "putrefied" condition.
According to the captain's medical records, he consulted a personal physician on July 27, 1997, and was diagnosed with bronchitis. The physician prescribed three medications: Copan (clenbuterol), a medication to open the upper airways; Vibramycin (doxycycline), an antibiotic; and Sentil (clobazam), a medication in the benzodiazepine class of drugs that is frequently used as a sedative.[1] The postmortem tests conducted by CAMI on the captain's blood specimen were negative for benzodiazepines, and no CAMI testing was available for the detection of Copan or Vibramycin.
The remains of deceased airplane occupants were examined by the Disaster Mortuary of Guam to determine the cause of death. Because many of the remains were fragmentary, the total number of remains sets (300) exceeded the number of accident fatalities. Autopsy examinations and toxicological analysis determined that the airplane occupants died of blunt force trauma, thermal injuries, and carbon monoxide inhalation. Complete autopsies and toxicological evaluations were performed on the remains of the three flight crewmembers (as discussed previously.) Of the 297 non-flight crewmember
- ↑ The captain did not advise Korean Air, before the July 28 to July 30, 1997, round trip flight from Seoul to San Francisco that he had been diagnosed with bronchitis and prescribed medications for the condition, nor did he receive medical approval from the company to conduct this trip. Korean Air's Operations Manual, chapter 4-12-4 (dated May 21, 1997), requires that a crewmember who "must be on duty under influence of medication, shall follow the direction of an Aeromedical Specialist." International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) Annex 1, section 1.2.6 (dated November 16, 1989), specifies that license holders should not exercise the privileges of their licenses and related ratings at any time when they are aware of any decrease in their medical fitness that might render them unable to safely exercise these privileges.
