A plane with 161 passengers was forced to turn back to Gimpo Airport in Seoul on Monday morning, after experiencing problems with the landing gear. According to Yonhap, the plane was of the same model and belonged to the same airline as the plane involved in Sunday's fatal crash, in which 179 people lost their lives.
The flight crew informed their passengers about the problem with the landing gear and the plane was able to land safely at Gimpo Airport about 40 minutes later.
We are aware of the incident and are investigating the cause, says a spokesperson for Jeju Air to AFP.
We cannot currently say that it was related to a fault in the landing gear and are waiting for an investigation.
Thousands of tickets cancelled
About 68,000 flight tickets have been cancelled since midnight on Sunday until Monday at 1 pm local time, according to Jeju Air to AFP. About 33,000 are domestic flights, while the rest are international flights. Despite this, the influx of new bookings continues, according to the company.
After the weekend, the low-cost airline's shares also fell by around 15 percent on Asian stock exchanges.
Boeing planes inspected
South Korea has also announced that it will conduct a "special" inspection of all Boeing planes of the B737-800 model in operation in the country – subsequently, the aircraft manufacturer's shares have fallen nearly 5 percent in trading. The inspection will continue until January 3.
Maintenance reports of vital systems such as engines and landing gear will be thoroughly reviewed for 101 planes operated by six airlines using the same model as the crashed plane, says Joo Jong-Wan, head of the aviation department at South Korea's transport department, according to AFP.
