Две корейские авиакомпании Jin Air и Jeju Air признаны виновными в нарушении правил эксплуатации авиатехники и оштрафованы за скандальные инциденты с вылетом с открытой дверью и пр.

A Jeju Air flight’s recent nosedive due to a problem with the pressure system resulted from the pilot failing to flip the switch activating the system, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport said, Thursday.

In the case of a Jin Air plane, taking off with one of its doors improperly closed, the airline had not fixed a door hinge and the pilot and maintenance staff violated related regulations.

The ministry said the two airlines may face up to seven days of suspended operations or up to 600 million won in fines. The pilots and involved staff may have their licenses suspended for up to 30 days. The actual punishments will soon be decided by the ministry’s disciplinary committee.

In the Dec. 23 Jeju Air incident, the pilot of the flight from Seoul to Jeju Island did not flip the switch to provide air to the cabin. He was supposed to check the switch before and after takeoff, and again when the plane reached an altitude of 3.04 kilometers, but he did not do so.

Hearing a warning sound some six minutes after takeoff, he turned on the switch and had the flight nosedive from 4.27 kilometers to 3 kilometers.

He had the plane ascend again to some 5.79 kilometers as the system was on, but had it descend again to 3 kilometers as passengers suffered from ear problems.

In the Jin Air case, a pilot detected a warning signal for one of the aircraft’s doors on Dec. 30 and notified a mechanic. But the mechanic did not find any problems in the hinge and reported it as a malfunction of the warning signal.

For such a report, maintenance staff must check the door in person before every takeoff. But they did not check the door on the flight bound to Cebu from Seoul on Jan. 3.

The ministry said that budget airlines will be punished if they do not prepare or take sufficient safety measures.