Korean Air has been in operation since 1969, and this article is about aviation incidents and accidents involving the airline and its predecessor companies Korean National Airlines and Korean Air Lines.
In the late 1990s, Korean Air was known for being "an industry pariah, notorious for fatal crashes" due to its extremely poor safety record as one of the world's most dangerous airlines.[1][2][3][4] In 1999, Korea's President Kim Dae-jung described the airline's safety record as "an embarrassment to the nation" and chose Korean Air's smaller rival, Asiana, for a flight to the United States.[5]
Between 1970 and 1999, several fatal incidents occurred. Since 1970, 17 Korean Air aircraft were written off in serious incidents, and accidents with the loss of 700 lives. Two Korean Air aircraft were shot down by the Soviet Union, one operating as Korean Air Lines Flight 902 and the other as Korean Air Lines Flight 007. Korean Air's deadliest incident was Flight 007 which was shot down by the Soviet Union on September 1, 1983. All 269 people on board were killed, including a sitting U.S. Congressman, Larry McDonald. The last fatal passenger accident was the Korean Air Flight 801 crash in 1997, which killed 229 people. The last crew fatalities were in the crash of Korean Air Cargo Flight 8509 in December 1999.[6]
Safety reportedly improved since as the airline made concerted efforts to improve standards in the 1990s which included bringing in outside consultants from Boeing and Delta Air Lines.[7][8] In 2001, the Federal Aviation Administration upgraded Korea's air-safety rating while Korean Air passed an International Air Transport Association audit in 2005.[9] After the Flight 8509 accident in 1999, it was 23 years until another Korean Air aircraft crashed on landing and was written off; Korean Air Flight 631 overshot the runway at Mactan–Cebu International Airport in October 2022.[10][11]
Several academics interviewed by CNBC in 2013 shared the belief that the hierarchical, linear nature of Korean social interactions could be a contributor to the airline's safety issues.[12]