The Korea Herald

피터빈트

Bullet found on Milan-bound KAL airplane

By Yoon Min-sik

Published : March 24, 2024 - 17:06

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In this unrelated photo from Feb. 14, a Korean Air cargo plane takes off from Incheon Airport. (Newsis) In this unrelated photo from Feb. 14, a Korean Air cargo plane takes off from Incheon Airport. (Newsis)

A bullet has been recovered from inside a Korean Air plane that was bound for Milan at Incheon Airport, according to airport police on Sunday.

According to the Incheon Airport Police Corps, a staff member who was cleaning the inside of flight KE0927 at around 11:20 a.m. on Sunday found a 9-millimeter bullet for a hunting gun underneath a passenger seat. The aircraft had been scheduled to head for the Italian city at 12:10 p.m.

Airport police conducted a thorough search inside the airplane but did not find any other objects presenting potential danger. It provisionally concluded that the bullet was not linked to any terrorism attempts, and is conducting an investigation to find how it came to be onboard the plane, which arrived in Incheon earlier Sunday after departing from Suvarnabhumi Airport in Bangkok.

The search resulted in the KE0927 flight being delayed for one hour and 34 minutes, eventually departing Incheon at 1:44 p.m.

A similar incident took place on another KAL aircraft in March 2023, when a passenger on a Manila-bound plane found a bullet underneath a seat. The incident led to the evacuation of everyone onboard before the plane was cleared for takeoff, and Korean Air and Incheon Airport were each fined 5 million won ($3,700) and 7.5 million won by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport.