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An aircraft that took off from Incheon International Airport for the United States on Thursday made a U-turn and dumped W40 million (US$40,000) worth of fuel to make sure a child with a high fever was safe.
Koran Air flight KE017 took off from Incheon for Los Angeles around 3 p.m. Thursday with 365 passengers aboard. Ten minutes later, five-year-old Jessica Lee, a Korean resident in the U.S., suddenly developed a high fever and started vomiting. Flight attendants and the child's mother did what they could, but the childĄ¯s temperature climbed to 39 degrees Celsius and she lost consciousness.
A Korean-American doctor on board diagnosed a seizure and said the child might not be able le to sustain a 10-hour flight. The captain decided to turn back.
The problem was that the aircraft's weight did not allow it to land straight away. To reduce impact on landing, aircraft must reduce to below a certain level. Fully loaded with some 135 tons of fuel, the aircraft had to dump fuel from the air.
The plane made a detour out to the East Sea, where it dumped 73 tons of fuel and returned to Incheon at around 4:48 p.m. The girl was treated at the airport's medical center and returned home while a refueled flight KE017 again took off for Los Angeles at 6:03 p.m.
The aviation fuel dumped was worth about W40 million. Including take-off and landing fees and expenses for connecting passengers included, the airline suffered a loss of about W50 million over the incident, Korean Air said. "Though lots of money and time were lost, the pilot made an adequate judgment for the sake of passenger safety," an airline official said. "Most passengers understood the situation and willingly accepted the inconvenience."
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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