North Korean jet involved in mid-flight incident operating again
Following domestic test flight, Air Koryo jet successfully completes Pyongyang to Beijing route
Hamish Macdonald
July 29th, 2016
A North Korean commercial plane, which reportedly caught fire, filled with smoke and had to conduct an emergency landing on July 22 is operating once more, according to FlightRadar24 and Air Koryo personnel.
The Air Koryo Tupolev TU204-300 P-632 jet was tracked on Friday completing an overseas flight from Pyongyang to Beijing, which is the same route it was forced to divert from when a mid-flight incident occurred last week. The flight numbered JS151, successfully landed in Beijing and according to the website, has since returned to the capital.
NK News was able to confirm with an Air Koryo source that the plane is back to its normal flight operations following the incident. NK News also learned the P-632 plane conducted an internal test-flight within North Korea prior to being deployed for overseas flights again.
The probably test flight was tracked by FlightRadar24 on July 25. Despite being able to show the flight direction – from East to West towards Hamhung – both the flight name and tracked path were highly irregular, however internal North Korean flights are typically difficult to track.
Internal test-flight of the P-632 | FlightRadar24
Although the FlightRadar24 route does not show the plane taking off or landing, it corroborates the information provided to NK News by the source at Air Koryo.
However the airline’s personnel were unable to confirm what technical issue first forced the jet to divert to Shenyang.
A passenger aboard the diverted flight, spoke to NK News about the incident and said the cabin began to fill with smoke. The report corroborated a Xinhua article which also claimed there was fire on board.
On Thursday the United Kingdom updated its Foreign Travel Advice website to include the July 22 incident.
“An incident reported in July 2016 involving an Air Koryo flight highlights the lack of official information regarding Air Koryo’s safety record and standards,” the website reads.
Flight JS151
Flight JS151 from Pyongyang to Beijing July 29 | FlightRadar24
Featured Image: Air Koryo Tu204-100 by Clay Gilliland on 2013-10-01 08:42:48
