SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — A Korean Air flight to Taiwan was forced to return to Incheon airport west of Seoul after a sudden depressurization on the plane, a Boeing 737 Max 8, the Transportation Ministry said Tuesday. -fair.
The ministry said 19 of the 133 people on board Saturday’s flight were sent to hospitals due to earache and nosebleeds, but none suffered serious injuries.
The airline and the ministry said the cause of the problem was under investigation. The aircraft was grounded and the ministry ordered South Korea’s 11 airlines to examine the pressurization systems on all of their 400 aircraft.
The sudden depressurization occurred about 50 minutes after the flight departed.
Separately, Malaysia Airlines said one of its Bangkok-bound flights on Monday turned around back to Kuala Lumpur after the Airbus A-330 experienced a “pressurization problem”.
Malaysia Airlines said its pilots initiated an emergency descent even though the aircraft had not reached an altitude of 8,000 feet and oxygen masks had not been donned. Flight MH780 carried 164 passengers and 12 crew.
An investigation was underway.
The 737 Max has a troubled history. After the Max jets crashed in 2018 in Indonesia and 2019 in Ethiopiakilling 346 people, the FAA and other regulators grounded the aircraft worldwide for more than a year and a half.
Concerns about the company’s best-selling commercial aircraft have been renewed after a panel on a 737 Max exploded during a crash. Alaska Airlines flight in January. No one was seriously injured in the incident.
