South Korea’s Han Sung Airlines has scaled back operations because yesterday one of its ATR 72s landed at South Korea’s Jeju island and had a landing gear collapse resulting in some people being injured.

There were about 60 people on board the flight from Seoul Gimpo airport which landed at Jeju at 16:10. Five people on board were injured as a result of the landing gear collapse, says an official in the carrier’s headquarters in Cheongju.

The injured are still in hospital, says the official, who claims the injuries are minor, adding that no passengers were injured and the only injuries were to the airline’s cabin crew and pilots.

Other reports suggest the number injured is six and say the runway at Jeju airport was closed for hours. Pictures taken after the landing show the aircraft’s front landing gear collapsed (below).

Han Sung crash ATR W445
© Xinhua News Agency

Han Sung only has two aircraft, both ATRs, so having one grounded has forced it to drastically scale back operations.

“We used to operate four times a day from Gimpo to Jeju but from today we changed it to one time a day,” says the official, adding that the airline’s service from Cheongju to Jeju remains unchanged at thrice daily.

The official was unable to tell ATI the damaged aircraft’s registration but one of Han Sung’s ATR 72s has the manufacturer’s serial number 0455 and the other 0456. Both are on lease from the manufacturer’s leasing arm ATR Leasing.

Source: FlightGlobal.com