From a news report: "The Korean Air Airbus A300 made its approach faster than usual to avoid potential windshear. Fifty feet above the runway the copilot, who was not flying the aircraft, decided that there was insufficient runway left to land and tried to perform a go-around against the captain's wishes. The aircraft touched down 1,773 meters beyond the runway threshold. The aircraft could not be stopped on the remaining 1,227 meters of runway and overran at a speed of 104 knots. After striking the airport wall and a guard post at 30 knots, the aircraft burst into flames."
— James Albright
Updated:
2013-07-17
HL 7296, from Aviation Safety Network
I suspect they could have safely landed had the copilot not intervened. I also suspect the safer course of action would have been to go around and that they could have done that had the decision been made. But as poster children for Crew Resource Management, they elected to fight and neither safe outcome could happen and they lost the airplane.
Note: I don't have any primary source material on this accident.
1
Accident report
- Date: 10 AUG 1994
- Time: 11:22 LT
- Type: Airbus A300B4-622R
- Operator: Korean Air
- Registration: HL7296
- Crew: Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 8
- Passengers: Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 152
- Total: Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 160
- Airplane fate: Written off (damaged beyond repair)
- Location: Cheju Airport (CJU) (South Korea)
- Phase: Landing (LDG)
- Nature: Domestic Scheduled Passenger
- Departure airport: Seoul-Gimpo (Kimpo) International Airport (SEL/RKSS), South Korea
- Destination airport: Jeju (Cheju) International Airport (CJU/RKPC), South Korea
2
Narrative
The Airbus approached fast and touched down 1773m past the runway threshold. The aircraft couldn't be stopped on the remaining 1227m and overran at a speed of 104 knots. After striking the airport wall and a guard post at 30 knots, the aircraft caught fire and burst into flames. The approach was flown with slats/flaps at 15/20 degrees due to suspected windshear.
4
Cause
The accident reports all say it was a wet runway and windshear concerns. The cockpit voice recorder reveals the real reason:
- Korean Airlines Flight 2033, an Airbus A300, was approaching a rain slicked airport that summer morning, when a conflict arose between the Captain of the airplane and his Copilot.
- The Copilot, Chung Chan Kuy, a Korean, asked Captain Barry Woods a Canadian, several times whether he wanted to “go around”. Apparently, the Copilot was concerned about the length of Runway 6. When the Captain told his Copilot not to “go around” the Copilot grabbed for the throttles. Woods told him to “get off.”
- They were flying through a tropical storm with winds that were gusting up to 30mph. We pick up the CVR tape just as the runway comes into sight.
- Copilot: Runway in sight, runway in sight.
- Captain: I got it, I got it.
- Copilot: Okay. Right Side? Right?
- Captain: Yeah….Okay. Give me the, uh, four hundred [feet]…three…minimum sink rate.
- Copilot: Sink rate, sink rate.
- Captain: Okay, Okay.
- Copilot: One hundred [feet]. Speed?
- Captain: Yeah, fifty [feet]
- At this juncture, the Copilot decides that there is insufficient distance for the Airbus to land safely without crossing the end of the runway. The Copilot, when the aircraft is only 30 feet off the ground, decides to “go around” and pulls back on the yoke.
- Copilot: Go around, forty [feet], thirty [feet]…
- Captain: Get your hands…..Get off! Get off! Tell me what the altitude is. Twenty [feet] . get off.
- Copilot: Go around?
- Captain: No, no, ten, five [feet]
- Here they touched down and the brakes and the thrust reversers were deployed, no matter. The Copilot still wanted to abort the landing and go around against the wishes of the Captain who was telling him not to go around but to brake the aircraft.
- Copilot: [I wanted to] go around…..go around.
- Captain: Yeah but we were on…. we were on the runway. Why did you pull us off? Okay, okay. We got to get out of here. Open your window.
- Cockpit[Sound of opening the cockpit window]
- Captain: Get your [evacuation] slide. Why did you pull us off? We had full reverse on. Pull the fire handles. Pull ‘em.
- Copilot: Fire pulls.
- Captain: Okay, get out. Get out.
- END OF TAPE.