Korean Air Flight 8702
Boeing 747-4B5 · Runway overrun due to pilot error
From Narita International Airport (NRT) to Seoul Gimpo International Airport (GMP)
Event
- NTSB case
- DCA98WA079
- 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
- Unknown · led by another country; figures from NTSB notifications
- Event fatalities
- 0 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- Unknown
- Occupants
- 395
- Survivors
- 395
- 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
- 25
- 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
- Instrument Meteorological Cond
Boeing 747-4B5
- Flight
- KE8702
- 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
- HL7496
- Operator
- Korean Air
- Onboard fatalities
- 0
- Route
- From Narita International Airport (NRT)To Seoul Gimpo International Airport (GMP)
- 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
- Not recorded
- 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
- Not recorded
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Substantial
Cause areas
No findings designated as a cause are recorded in the NTSB data yet.
Approximate · Estimated position: Seoul Gimpo International Airport, the airport the Wikipedia article names as the site. Where on or near it is not known.
From the Wikipedia article
Korean Air Flight 8702, operated by a Boeing 747-400, departed Tokyo, Narita International Airport on 5 August 1998 at 16:50 for a flight to Seoul, scheduled to arrive there at 19:20. Bad weather, including heavy rainfall, at Seoul forced the flight crew to divert to Jeju. The aircraft took off from Jeju at 21:07 for Seoul. The flight was cleared to land on runway 14R with a crosswind component as the wind was from 220 degrees at 22 knots. Upon touchdown, the aircraft rolled off the runway. The aircraft slid into a ditch. The undercarriage was destroyed by the impact and the fuselage split. After the accident, the inside of the aircraft caught fire, but all the occupants were able to evacuate the aircraft.
Accident
Korean Air flight 8702 was a scheduled flight from Tokyo, Narita International Airport to Seoul, Gimpo International Airport. Due to poor weather, the crew diverted to Jeju International Airport. Upon landing the aircraft was towed to the main terminal and the passengers temporarily disembarked into the terminal. Two hours later the passengers re-boarded the aircraft for the 1 hour flight back to Seoul.
The aircraft took off from Jeju at 21:07 for Seoul. The flight was cleared to land on runway 14R with a crosswind component as the wind was from 220 degrees at 22 knots. Upon touchdown, the captain misused the reverse thrusters in a way the No. 1 engine failed to provide reverse thrust. Coupled with the fact the captain was confused with crosswind conditions and the first officer was preoccupied and not paying attention to the landing, the 747 failed to stop before the end of the runway. The aircraft swerved to the right and slid into a ditch at 50 knots with the fuselage splitting up.
Text from the Wikipedia article “Korean Air Flight 8702” (revision 1374483302, 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: Korean Air Flight 8702
- Article
- Korean Air Flight 8702
- Revision
- 1374483302 · 2026-09-12 · retrieved 2026-09-18
- Wikidata
- Q6830431
- Licence
- Text CC BY-SA 4.0, by the article's authors; Wikidata CC0; town positions GeoNames (CC BY 4.0)
NTSB record DCA98WA079
- Event ID
- 20001211X10826
- Case number
- DCA98WA079
- Dataset
- historical-pre2008
- Source SHA-256
- 89e2df6d848e7ab3b42e7d7c7a03ff403303057a26ca04c95b3ea67201c3ce74
Where each value comes from
- Record
- Wikipedia article "Korean Air Flight 8702" (page 43897478, revision 1374483302); merged with NTSB case DCA98WA079 (events / aircraft)
- Date
- Wikipedia infobox: date
- Place and country
- Wikipedia infobox: site
- Map position
- Wikipedia: airport the Wikipedia infobox site links (Wikidata code, OurAirports)
- 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 DCA98WA079
- Operation
- airline flight number in the infobox
- Fatalities
- Wikipedia: Wikipedia infobox: aircraft fatalities
- Ground fatalities
- Wikipedia: not stated in the Wikipedia infobox
- Summary
- Wikipedia infobox: summary
Source notes (2)
- One occurrence in two sources, merged: the Wikipedia article "Korean Air Flight 8702" and NTSB case DCA98WA079, matched by the same aircraft maker and place and date. For this event outside the United States Wikipedia's values are used where the two differ; each value names its source.
- No bulk values were replaced by the NTSB case API.