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The importance of keeping a manual in case of emergency

Posted December. 15, 2015 07:59,   

한국어

The Korean government began investigations on the Israeli communications equipment manufacturer and its importer, regarding the communications breakdown of traffic control towers in Jeju Airport. Both the major and back-up communications facilities at the airport malfunctioned between 6:50 p.m. and 7:40 p.m. on Saturday, which led to an unprecedented 20 emergency landings and delays of a total of 77 flights. This could have caused a massive scale accident at an airport with 25 million annual users.

The emergency communications facilities serve as a backup in case the main equipment breaks down, but this time they failed to work immediately. Worse, the airport workers did not know how to manually operate the emergency system. Since the two systems use the same frequency, the backup system would operate only after turning off the main system. It is lamentable that the people in charge were not aware of this, even though it is included in the work manual. It is only lucky that there hasn’t been a large-scale accident.

Jeju International Airport is expected to see overcapacity by 2018 due to the surging number of tourists. The government has announced a plan to construct a new airport in the island, but it is scheduled to be finished in 2024. As the airport control system developed by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, and Transport by investing 34.5 billion won (29.1 million U.S. dollars) has turned out to be inappropriate for commercialization, no domestic airport adopted this system. We should take this accident as an opportunity to carefully review the existing airport control system and work ethics of airport workers.

The fire took place at a private cram school in Bundang on Friday did not cause a single casualty as the fire protection door worked properly and instructors evacuated the students promptly according to the emergency manual. It was a good example showing the importance of following the emergency manual to prevent a disaster. Korean society should learn a lesson from the consequences we’ve seen in Jeju and Bundang.