A Korean Air flight bound for Gimpo International Airport from Jeju late Sunday night was delayed for nearly three hours, causing a great deal of inconvenience to passengers.
Korean Air said Monday that when flight KE1254, which was scheduled to take off at 9:15 p.m. Sunday from Jeju International Airport, was taxiing on the runway for takeoff, an alarm signal sounded.
As a result, the plane aborted the takeoff and returned to the passenger terminal.
The country’s largest flagship carrier then had about 250 passengers transfer to another plane, which took off at 11:45 p.m.
An hour and 10 minutes later, the airplane landed at Incheon International Airport, instead of Gimpo International Airport, which stops operating at 11 p.m.
“The plane had to land at Incheon airport because Gimpo airport is not in operation from 11 p.m. to 6 a.m. We secured seven shuttle buses and made other arrangements to minimize passenger inconvenience,” a Korean Air official said.
The official said company engineers are currently examining the airplane to discover what caused the alarm to be activated.