S. Korea’s Air-Safety Rating Lowered

The Federal Aviation Administration announced Friday that South Korea does not meet international air-safety standards.

The ruling came after FAA inspectors determined that South Korea’s civil aviation authorities have failed to provide the oversight needed to meet the standards imposed by the International Civil Aviation Organization.

“The assessments are not an indication of whether individual foreign carriers are safe or unsafe,” the FAA said.

However, the FAA ruling seems certain to cast another cloud over Korean Air, the international carrier whose image was tarnished when one of its Boeing 747 jumbo jets crashed in Guam in 1997, killing 228 of the 254 on board.

The National Transportation Safety Board blamed the crash on pilot error and inadequate pilot training. The board said ineffective oversight of Korean Air’s operation’s by the Korean Aviation Bureau contributed to the accident.

Friday’s ruling means Korean Airlines will be permitted to continue its flights to Los Angeles and other U.S. cities, but the operations here will be under heightened FAA surveillance.

Reducing South Korea’s rating from Category 1 to Category 2 drops it to the same ranking as Panama, Trinidad and Tobago and Greece, the only other Category 2 countries with flights to the United States, said Laura Brown, an FAA spokeswoman in Washington.

In making its announcement, the FAA declined to detail South Korea’s shortcomings.

“These things are sensitive,” said one federal official close to the case.

The FAA said only that Category 2 rankings are given to countries in which the civil aviation authorities lack regulations, qualified personnel, technical expertise, resources or documentation to meet international safety standards.

“The government of the Republic of Korea is placing high priority on accomplishing needed reforms,” the FAA said.