Muan International Airport Closure Extended, Trapping Jin Air 737

Following the Jeju Air landing disaster, Muan International Airport was closed until January 19th for investigation and recovery. However, a decision was made to close the airport further until April, halting all operations at the airport. Unfortunately, a lone Boeing 737-800 got trapped at the airport until operations resume.

A Boeing 737 Trapped Inside the Airport

At 8:50 local time (KST) on December 29th 2024, a Boeing 737-800 landed at Muan International Airport in South Korea. The Boeing was operating as Jin Air Flight LJ748 flying from Taipei Taoyuan International Airport (TPE) in Taiwan.

The aircraft is registered as HL8012. Being a subsidiary of Korean Air, most of Jin Air's fleet previously operated for Korean Air. However, HL8012 is one of six aircraft that were delivered new to Jin Air. Having been delivered in July 2015, the plane is 9.5 years old. 

The 737 had started operating from its new Muan base for just 4 days up to that point. According to FlightRadar24.com, the plane would fly roundtrip flights from Muan to Osaka, then Muan to Jeju, Muan to Tokyo/Narita, and finally Muan to Taipei as a cycle. However on December 28th, the day before the disaster at the airport, the flights to and from Jeju and Narita were severely delayed. This also caused the trip to Taipei to be delayed, and the plane ended up landing at Muan International Airport 4 hours behind schedule at 8:50 AM on December 29th. 13 minutes later, Jeju Air Flight 7C2216 crashed after it overran the runway.

No Way Out

After the crash of Jeju Air Flight 7C2216, the whole airport was closed for any flight activities, restricting takeoff and landing. This meant that the Jin Air Boeing 737, HL8012, would not be able to operate flights, nor even be able to leave the airport. Initially, the closure was set until January 7th, but was extended to January 19th. However, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport announced on January 20th that the closure would be extended to April 18th.

The announcement came as the Black Box flight recorders were discovered to have been inoperative minutes before the crash. While the relations between the discovery and airport closures were not mentioned, it is highly speculated that the airport is closed for further investigation of the crash.

HL8012 is leased to Jin Air by its lessor, and monthly payments for the plane are estimated to be around $220,000 to $240,000. As the runway is estimated to be closed for 111 days since the incident, the approximate total loss for the inoperable 737 is calculated at around $814,000  and $888,122. Experts say that while the loss for Jin Air is significant, it would probably be hard for Jin Air to receive any sort of compensation from the government or Jeju Air regarding the incident.

HL8012 is currently parked at Muan International Airport at the time of writing.