South Korean company Korean Air said Tuesday it was investigating a depressurization incident on one of its Boeing 737-8s that injured 17 passengers on Saturday, prompting an emergency return to its starting point.
A company spokesman confirmed to AFP on Tuesday that the incident happened 50 minutes after the flight took off from Seoul-Incheon to Taichung, Taiwan with 125 people on board.
According to FlightRadar data, the plane fell 26,900 feet, or about 8,200 meters, in 15 minutes, according to Monday's Daily Mail. According to a video shot by one of the passengers, the oxygen masks also fell off.
The pressure failure resulted in 17 passengers being treated but not seriously injured, the company said.
“We are cooperating fully with the relevant authorities to shed light on the circumstances of the incident,” added Korean Air, which offered “apologies to all concerned”.
Boeing has been raising production and quality control issues on several models of its commercial planes for months.
Last week, the plane maker's CEO, Dave Calhoun, noted the “seriousness” of the situation in the region during a hearing before the US Senate.
In January, the cap door of an Alaska Airlines 737 MAX 9 came off mid-flight, forcing the plane to make an emergency landing.
The US Department of Justice warned in mid-May that it could face criminal proceedings against the planemaker for failing to comply with the January 2021 agreement after two 737 MAX 8s crashes in 2018 and 2019, which killed a total of 346 people. .
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