Asiana Airlines Flight 991
Asiana Airlines Cargo Boeing 747-48EF · Crashed into the sea following in-flight fire of undetermined cause leading to In-flight breakup
From Incheon International Airport (ICN) to Shanghai Pudong International Airport (PVG)
Event
- NTSB case
- DCA11RA087
- Event typeAccident: someone killed or seriously injured, or the aircraft substantially damaged (NTSB definition). Incident: an occurrence that affected or could have affected safety, short of that. Glossary
- Accident
- InvestigationHow far the investigation had got when the record was published: preliminary, ongoing, final or completed. Unknown where the source does not say. Glossary
- Final · ARAIB final report, 31 Jul 2015
- Event fatalities
- 2 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- Unknown
- Occupants
- 2
- Survivors
- 0
- InjuriesFatal: death within 30 days. Serious: over 48 hours in hospital within a week, most broken bones, severe bleeding, nerve or organ damage, or serious burns. Minor: anything less. Glossary
- 0 serious · 0 minor (NTSB)
- OperationWhat kind of flying it was, grouped by the rules it flew under: airline (US Part 121), air taxi and commuter (Part 135), general aviation (Part 91 and similar), military or government. Glossary
- Airline
- WeatherVisual meteorological conditions (VMC): good enough to fly by looking outside. Instrument conditions (IMC): cloud or low visibility, flying by instruments. Glossary
- Not recorded
Boeing 747-48EF
- Flight
- OZ991
- Aircraft type
- Boeing 747
- Category
- Airplane
- RegistrationThe aircraft's tail number, such as N12345 or G-ABCD. Registrations are reissued, so the same one years apart can be a different aircraft. Glossary
- HL7604
- Operator
- Asiana Airlines Cargo
- Onboard fatalities
- 2
- Route
- From Incheon International Airport (ICN)To Shanghai Pudong International Airport (PVG)
- Aircraft age
- Not recorded
- Flight rulesThe regulations the flight operated under: in the US, Part 91 (general aviation), Part 121 (airlines), Part 135 (air taxi and commuter) and others; for flights abroad, the NTSB's coarser commercial or non-commercial code. Glossary
- Non-U.S., Commercial
- Phase of flightThe stage of the flight when things started to go wrong: standing, taxi, takeoff, initial climb, en route, maneuvering, approach or landing. Glossary
- En route · climb to cruise
- Defining eventThe single coded event the NTSB judges best describes what happened (records from 2008 on). Older records name the first occurrence in the sequence instead. Glossary
- Fire/smoke (non-impact)
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Not determined › Not determined
From the investigation findings the Wikipedia article reports, sorted into the NTSB's cause areas with AI assistance.
Approximate · Coordinates from the Wikipedia article; not checked against an investigation report.
From the Wikipedia article
Asiana Airlines Flight 991 was a cargo flight operated by Asiana Airlines. On 28 July 2011, the Boeing 747-400 flying from Seoul, South Korea, to Shanghai, China, crashed into the sea about 81 miles west off of the coast of Jeju Island after suffering an in-flight cargo fire. Both pilots, the only two people on board, were killed. The accident marked the second loss of a 747 freighter due to a cargo hold fire in less than a year, following the crash of UPS Airlines Flight 6 in Dubai in September 2010.
Accident
The aircraft was loaded with 58 tonnes of cargo, the majority of which consisted of semiconductors, mobile phones, liquid crystal displays, and light-emitting diodes. The remaining 400 kg of cargo consisted of lithium batteries, paint and photoresist fluid.
At 03:54, while cruising at 34,000 ft, the crew contacted air traffic control (ATC) reporting a fire on board, requesting an immediate descent and diversion to Jeju Airport, South Korea, for an emergency landing.
The aircraft was observed on radar descending towards 8000 ft at 04:01 and then erratically climbing and descending for the following nine minutes, reaching an altitude of almost 15,000 ft. In their last communications to ATC, the crew reported heavy vibrations and loss of flight controls. After a steep descent to 4,000 ft, radio contact was lost at 04:11, when the aircraft was 130 km west of Jeju Island.
Investigation and cause
Investigation
The South Korean Aviation and Railway Accident Investigation Board (ARAIB) conducted the investigation, but due to the loss of both flight recorders, it could not fully determine the causes of the fire nor the exact sequence of events prior to the impact with the sea. From the distribution of fire and heat damage on the recovered debris, a fire was found to have started in or near one of the ULD pallets containing dangerous goods in the rear fuselage, but not enough evidence was found to determine exactly what caused the fire.
The fire was not contained and quickly propagated forward to the rest of the fuselage. Fire damage and soot were found in the air conditioning ducts that run along the fuselage and on ceiling panels near the cockpit area. The cockpit smoke evacuation vent displayed traces of soot, indicating that smoke had entered the cockpit. Some electronic components that were part of the cargo were found embedded in the wing's upper surface, together with traces of paint and photoresist, suggesting that at some point, the flammable liquids transported in one of the pallets ignited, causing an explosion that blew out portions of the fuselage in midair.
It was estimated that only 18 minutes had elapsed from the moment the fire was first detected to the final impact with the sea. The crew likely would not have been able to extinguish the fire or safely land the plane within that time frame.
Text from the Wikipedia article “Asiana Airlines Flight 991” (revision 1366386805, retrieved 2026-09-18) by its authors, under CC BY-SA 4.0. Extracted as plain text: references, tables, images and some sections are left out. Read the article
Sources
Wikipedia article: Asiana Airlines Flight 991
- Article
- Asiana Airlines Flight 991
- Revision
- 1366386805 · 2026-07-27 · retrieved 2026-09-18
- Wikidata
- Q486045
- Licence
- Text CC BY-SA 4.0, by the article's authors; Wikidata CC0; town positions GeoNames (CC BY 4.0)
NTSB record DCA11RA087
- Event ID
- 20110728X25504
- Case number
- DCA11RA087
- Dataset
- full-current
- Source SHA-256
- 5cf380f0061817c0331a6b2d8cc7e0ee3a79bea469a1001dc5c10e56f35f5ab3
Where each value comes from
- Record
- Wikipedia article "Asiana Airlines Flight 991" (page 32555866, revision 1366386805); merged with NTSB case DCA11RA087 (events / aircraft)
- Date
- Wikipedia infobox: date; matches the Aviation and Railway Accident Investigation Board (ARAIB), Republic of Korea final report
- Place and country
- Wikipedia infobox: site
- Map position
- Wikipedia: Wikipedia article coordinates; matches the Aviation and Railway Accident Investigation Board (ARAIB), Republic of Korea final report
- Aircraft, operator and route
- Wikipedia infobox: aircraft type, registration, operator, origin and destination; route airports from the linked airport articles' Wikidata codes (OurAirports); gaps and aircraft details from NTSB record DCA11RA087
- Operation
- airline flight number in the infobox
- Fatalities
- Wikipedia: Wikipedia infobox: aircraft fatalities; matches the Aviation and Railway Accident Investigation Board (ARAIB), Republic of Korea final report
- Ground fatalities
- Wikipedia: not stated in the Wikipedia infobox
- Summary
- Wikipedia infobox: summary
Source notes (4)
- One occurrence in two sources, merged: the Wikipedia article "Asiana Airlines Flight 991" and NTSB case DCA11RA087, matched by the same aircraft registration and date. For this event outside the United States Wikipedia's values are used where the two differ; each value names its source.
- The NTSB record dates it 2011-07-27 and the Wikipedia article 2011-07-28; Wikipedia's date is used.
- No bulk values were replaced by the NTSB case API.
- Checked against the Aviation and Railway Accident Investigation Board (ARAIB), Republic of Korea final report (2015-07-31) on 2026-09-18. The report states the same date, crash-site coordinates, flight number, fatalities, registration, operator, departure, destination and damage. Not checked: place, aircraft type, type of operation and ground fatalities.