By Lee Hyo-sik
Many air travelers are increasingly concerned over flight safety, after soldiers fired at a civilian aircraft over the West Sea, early Friday morning.
They say it is unthinkable that the military mistook a civilian airplane for a North Korean fighter jet, adding the authorities should get to the bottom of the case and make sure such an incident will never happen again.
Lee Kyung-sik, a 36-year-old salaried worker at one of Korea’s largest steel makers, said the shooting has made him lose faith in the nation’s armed forces and feel uneasy about flying to and from Incheon International Airport.
``When I heard the news on Saturday, I did not know what to say. What happened was just ridiculous. How could they not tell the difference between a civilian airplane and a fighter jet? The soldiers must have not been properly trained,’’ said Lee, who goes on several business trips to Indonesia and other Southeast Asian countries each month.
He added he feels less safe about getting onto an airplane now than before the incident, stressing it should never happen again.
At 4 a.m. Friday, two Marine Corps soldiers guarding the southern coast of Gyodong Island in Incheon fired their K-2 rifles at an Asiana Airlines aircraft for about 10 minutes, the Marine Corps said. The pair reportedly discharged a total of 99 rounds.
It said the guards misidentified the airplane as a North Korean warplane, adding the Asiana flight sustained no damage.
At the time of the shooting, the airplane was descending to land at Incheon International Airport, carrying 119 passengers and crew from China.
A Marines Corps officer said the soldiers mistook the Asiana airplane for a North Korean plane because it was flying north of the normal route.
``The guards said they had never before seen civilian airplanes approach the way the Asiana plane did. So they assumed it was one of the North’s fighter jets and shot at it. But fortunately, the airplane was undamaged because it was flying above the K-2 rifle’s range of 500-600 meters,’’ the officer said.
But Asiana Airlines said its airplane was not off the usual course.
``The plane was on a normal route toward Incheon airport and showed no signs of abnormality. We checked with the Incheon airport control tower. At the time of the incident, passengers and crew members on the flight were not aware of the shooting,’’ an Asiana Airlines official said.
