China to limit operations of North Korean airline after forced landing
Regulator also tells Air Koryo to improve training and maintenance
China will limit the operations of North Korean carrier Air Koryo after one of its aircraft made an emergency landing in the northeastern city of Shenyang last month.
The plane, a Russian-built Tupolev TU-204-300, was flying to Beijing from Pyongyang when it made a forced landing in Shenyang because of smoke in the cabin. The plane landed safely and there were no casualties.
China’s civil aviation regulator said in a statement on Wednesday that an investigation had found that the smoke had come from a call button located under a luggage rack.
The regulator said the incident highlighted three problems that the carrier now had to fix: improving its training on how to handle such incidents; improving its communications with air traffic control; and upgrading its aircraft maintenance.
The airline also needed to offer better training on handling burst tyres, engine fires, emergency decompression and traffic-collision-avoidance system warnings, the regulator added.
