Asiana gets 45-day suspension on San Francisco route over crash

Asiana Airlines Inc., South Korea's No. 2 flag carrier, was ordered Friday to suspend its services to San Francisco for 45 days as punishment for a passenger jet crash in the U.S. city last year that left three people dead.

   Under Friday's decision by a seven-member review committee, Asiana will be barred from operating its Incheon-San Francisco route for the penalty period from a date of its own choosing, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport said.

   Asiana Airlines will have 15 days to appeal the decision, the ministry said.

   The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board in June had concluded after a joint investigation with South Korean experts that pilot error was the main cause of the Asiana flight's crash landing at San Francisco airport in July 2013.

   The crash left three people killed with some 180 others injured.

   "All committee members agreed a suspension of operation was inevitable," Kwon Yong-bok, head of the ministry's aviation security division, told reporters.

   By aviation saftey law, a fatal accident involving casualties is punished with a minimum 90-day suspension, according to the official.

   "The committee decided to reduce the duration by 50 percent, which is the maximum reduction allowed under the law, considering the sincere and dedicated evacuation efforts by the flight's crew that helped minimize the casualties," Kwon said.

   Asiana Airline previously said a 90-day suspension would cause a loss of some 20.8 billion won ($18.9 million) in sales.

   The government was said to have considered only imposing fines without operational suspension.

   Kwon said the government decided to send a clear warning to all airlines to prevent future accidents. The maximum fine for a fatal accident is only 2.2 billion won.

   "What we sought to do before anything else was to improve airline safety. Ensuring airline safety came before punishing the involved airline," he added.  (Yonhap)