Korean Air Cargo Flight 6316

Korean Air Cargo

Industry	Air cargo transport
Founded	1969
Headquarters	Seoul , South Korea
Parent	Korean Air

Template:Infobox aircraft occurrence Korean Air Cargo Flight 6316 (KE6316/KAL6316) was a scheduled freight service operated by Korean Air Cargo between Shanghai and Seoul. On 15 April 1999, the McDonnell Douglas MD-11F registered HL7373 crashed shortly after departure from Hongqiao Airport in Xinzhuang, Shanghai, resulting in the deaths of all three crew members aboard and five individuals on the ground.

Accident

The MD-11F assigned to Flight 6316 departed Shanghai Hongqiao Airport around 4:00 pm carrying a cargo load of approximately 86 tons. The cockpit crew comprised Captain Hong Sung-sil (Template:Korean), aged 54; First Officer Park Bon-suk (Template:Korean), aged 35; and Flight Engineer Park Byong-ki (Template:Korean), aged 48. Following takeoff, the first officer established contact with Shanghai Departure and received clearance to ascend to 1,500 metres (4,900 ft).

During the climb at about 4,500 feet (1,400 m), the first officer incorrectly informed the captain that the assigned altitude was 1,500 feet (460 m), mistakenly believing the aircraft was approximately 3,000 minutes (180,000 s) too high. Reacting swiftly, the captain pushed the control column forward abruptly, causing a rapid descent exceeding 34,000 minutes (2,000,000 s). At approximately 4:04 pm, the aircraft entered an uncontrollable steep dive and crashed into an industrial area in Xinzhuang, located roughly 10 southwest of Hongqiao Airport. Upon impact, the plane exploded. Besides the three South Korean crew members who perished onboard, five individuals on the ground—two schoolchildren and three migrant workers—also lost their lives. The collision's force was strong enough to be recorded by the nearby Shanghai Earthquake Administration, registering an event comparable to a magnitude 1.6 earthquake.

Aircraft

The aircraft involved was a McDonnell Douglas MD-11 freighter, registered as HL7373 with the manufacturer's serial number 48409, equipped with three Pratt & Whitney PW4460 engines. Manufactured in February 1992, it was initially delivered to Korean Air on March 24, 1992, configured as a passenger plane. In 1996, this aircraft underwent conversion to serve as a freighter.

Investigation

The initial investigation conducted on April 27, 1999, found no indications of an explosion or mechanical malfunction prior to the crash. A subsequent inquiry by the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) in June 2001 determined that the first officer mistakenly confused the required altitude of 1,500 meters with 1,500 feet. This error led the captain to make an incorrect decision to descend. The captain's reaction involved an abrupt and excessive input on the flight controls, causing a rapid descent from which recovery was not possible.

In South Korea, altitude measurements for aviation purposes follow the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) standard and are expressed in feet. Conversely, in Russia, China, and some Central Asian countries, flight levels above the transition altitude are assigned and cleared in feet (e.g., FL330), while altitudes below the transition level are given in meters. Pilots use altimeters calibrated either in meters or convert assigned altitudes when using instruments calibrated in feet.

See also

• Korean Air incidents and accidents
• National Airlines Flight 102 – also crashed shortly after takeoff.
• Air India Flight 855
• Avient Aviation Flight 324 – another MD-11F accident that occurred in Shanghai.
• Air China Flight 129 – crashed near Busan three years following the Shanghai incident.
• Korean Air Cargo Flight 8509 – another Korean Air Cargo aircraft that crashed shortly after departure from London Stansted Airport, eight months after the Shanghai accident.
• Air Canada Flight 143 – an aviation event similarly caused by confusion between metric and imperial measurement systems.

External links

• PlaneCrashInfo.Com – KE6316 case summary
• Template:Usurped (Template:Usurped)
• Template:ASN accident
• "Loss: Korean Air Boeing MD-11F – HL-7373" (Archived copy Alternate archive). Flight International. 15 April 1999.