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| ▲ The Board of Audit and Inspection (Yonhap) |
audit-Muan airport
Concrete mound at Muan airport built to save construction costs: audit
SEOUL, March 10 (Yonhap) -- A concrete mound blamed for the deadly 2024 plane crash at Muan International Airport was found to have been built in order to save construction costs, the state auditor said Tuesday.
The mound was raised near the end of the runway at the airport some 290 kilometers south of Seoul to support a localizer, which sends signals to help aircraft find the middle of the runway.
On Dec. 29, 2024, a Jeju Air jet from Bangkok crashed into the structure after making a belly landing, killing 179 passengers and crew members on board.
According to the Board of Audit and Inspection (BAI), which inspected aviation safety measures and related maintenance, personnel and control, the terrain on which the runway and the adjacent Runway End Safety Area were built was sloping.
In order to save construction costs from reshaping the terrain, a concrete mound was built to raise the localizer above the runway, the BAI said.
The auditor also found that the Korea Airports Corp. (KAC) demanded a review of the mound's construction in 2007 after it was approved by the land ministry in 2003 without a vulnerability assessment. Still, no changes were made.
Moreover, as part of a modernization project between 2019 and 2024, the KAC reinforced the mound at Muan and similar structures at four other airports, according to the BAI.
In total, 14 localizer structures at eight airports were found to have been built without meeting standards, it said.
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