Harbour Dweller
19th Jun 2011, 12:33
S Korean soldiers fire at passenger jet
By North Asia correspondent Mark Willacy (http://www.abc.net.au/profiles/content/s1865155.htm?site=news), wires
Updated Sat Jun 18, 2011 5:03pm AEST
http://www.abc.net.au/reslib/201106/r785990_6802489.jpg (http://www.abc.net.au/reslib/201106/r785990_6802525.jpg) The South Korean Asiana jet was heading to Seoul's Incheon International Airport. (AFP: Richard A Brooks)
South Korean soldiers have opened fire on a passenger jet with more than 100 people on board, after mistaking it for a hostile North Korean aircraft.
Thinking they had spotted a North Korean military jet, South Korean soldiers manning a guard post on Gyodong Island fired their K-2 rifles towards the plane on Friday.
The South Korean Asiana jet with 119 people on board was descending as it approached Seoul's Incheon International Airport.
The incident took place close to the tense border with the North - Gyodong lies only 1.7 kilometres south of the North Korean coast.
"The firing continued about 10 minutes but the plane was too far off the rifle's range and it did not receive any damage," Yonhap news agency quoted a Marine Corps official as saying.
"When the plane appeared over Jumun Island, soldiers mistook it as a North Korean military aircraft and fired."
A Marine Corps spokesman told AFP the report was correct but declined to give further details.
An aviation controller told AFP that the Asiana flight from China was following a normal route.
The peninsula is on high alert after Pyongyang broke off all contact with the government in Seoul, with the South warning that its communist neighbour is planning another military strike.
- ABC/AFP
By North Asia correspondent Mark Willacy (http://www.abc.net.au/profiles/content/s1865155.htm?site=news), wires
Updated Sat Jun 18, 2011 5:03pm AEST
http://www.abc.net.au/reslib/201106/r785990_6802489.jpg (http://www.abc.net.au/reslib/201106/r785990_6802525.jpg) The South Korean Asiana jet was heading to Seoul's Incheon International Airport. (AFP: Richard A Brooks)
South Korean soldiers have opened fire on a passenger jet with more than 100 people on board, after mistaking it for a hostile North Korean aircraft.
Thinking they had spotted a North Korean military jet, South Korean soldiers manning a guard post on Gyodong Island fired their K-2 rifles towards the plane on Friday.
The South Korean Asiana jet with 119 people on board was descending as it approached Seoul's Incheon International Airport.
The incident took place close to the tense border with the North - Gyodong lies only 1.7 kilometres south of the North Korean coast.
"The firing continued about 10 minutes but the plane was too far off the rifle's range and it did not receive any damage," Yonhap news agency quoted a Marine Corps official as saying.
"When the plane appeared over Jumun Island, soldiers mistook it as a North Korean military aircraft and fired."
A Marine Corps spokesman told AFP the report was correct but declined to give further details.
An aviation controller told AFP that the Asiana flight from China was following a normal route.
The peninsula is on high alert after Pyongyang broke off all contact with the government in Seoul, with the South warning that its communist neighbour is planning another military strike.
- ABC/AFP