<Anchor>
Jeju International Airport has only one runway.
However, as the number of people visiting Jeju increases amid Corona, planes are going up and down at the rate of one every 1 minute and 20 seconds.
However, we have data that indicate that there is only half the capacity of airport controllers to control this situation, which increases the risk of accidents.
Correspondent Jo Ki-ho.
<Reporter>
Jeju International Airport in September 2017.
A passenger plane carrying 189 people had a tire burst just before takeoff.
When the accident investigation report was obtained and analyzed, the airliner was running down the runway to take off and there was a military plane crossing in front of it.
The pilot applied a sudden brake and barely stopped to prevent the accident.
[Oh Eun-seong / Jeju Aviation Administration Controller: At this time, the tire was damaged.
Specifically, at this time, it stopped at about 800m, the plane.]
The authorities concluded that it was the controller's responsibility for not understanding the situation properly.
Accidents that were not known to the outside continued after that.
When a research team at the Aviation University researched why accidents were frequent last year, it was revealed that the structural factor was that the controller was overloaded with only half of the international standards.
[Oh Eun-seong / Jeju Aviation Administration Controller: (Jeju Island) is currently handling more than 10,000 aircraft per controller.
This is a bit of an unusual amount of traffic.]
Controllers at airports across the country are working 14 hours a week during the day and 5 and a half hours a week at night, especially when tension is high due to a shortage of manpower.
[Lee Jang-wook/Seoul Aviation Administration Controller: There are a lot of planes
coming in, and it's really hard because I'm just confused and I can make a mistake if I lose my concentration even a little, so that's directly related to safety.]
It is supposed to sound an alarm, and I am often reprimanded for letting it narrow down.
[Oh Eun-seong / Jeju Aviation Administration Controller: It's an alarm made to sound.
Why are you sounding the alarm, you should be punished...
.]
For this reason, many of the controllers want to change jobs when the opportunity arises.
[Kim Sang-bae/Jeju Aviation Administration Controller: When the number of planes increases, seniors say that anything is difficult, and anything is difficult, so juniors say, 'It's difficult, but I'm still here to do something, go to a good place'...
.]
Moreover, as the number of flights is expected to surge once the corona crisis subsides, safety management is becoming more important.
The Aviation University research team decided that it was not easy to solve the problem in a situation where the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport manages the overall control work.
[Lee Young-hyuk/Professor at Aviation University: The supervisory agency (Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport) and the execution agency (control organization) are not separated.
Even if there is something wrong in it, it will just be covered...
.]
The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport is aware of this situation and is pushing for an increase, but explained that it is not easy to increase the number of controllers alone as the total number of civil servants in the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport is limited.
It seems clear what this service report is saying whether it is safe to look at your hands after an accident or whether it is safe to prevent an accident first.
(Video coverage: Hojun Choi, video editing: Jiin Park, CG: Seunghyun Seo)