GENERAL INFORMATION

NARRATIVE

[O] On August 6, 1997, about 0142:26 Guam local time, Korean Air flight 801, a Boeing 747-3B5B (747-300), Korean registration HL7468, operated by Korean Air Company, Ltd., crashed at Nimitz Hill, Guam. Flight 801 departed from Kimpo International Airport, Seoul, Korea, with 2 pilots, 1 flight engineer, 14 flight attendants, and 237 passengers on board. The airplane had been cleared to land on runway 6L at A.B. Won Guam International Airport, Agana, Guam, and crashed into high terrain about 3 miles southwest of the airport. Of the 254 persons on board, 228 were killed, and 23 passengers and 3 flight attendants survived the accident with serious injuries. The airplane was destroyed by impact forces and a postcrash fire. Flight 801 was operating in U.S. airspace as a regularly scheduled international passenger service flight under the Convention of International Civil Aviation and the provisions of 14 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) Part 129 and was on an instrument flight rules flight plan. [Recommendations] A-00-16. Evaluate the benefits of depicting terrain and other obstacles along a specific approach path on the profile view of approach charts and require such depiction if the evaluation demonstrates the benefits. [Responses] FAA LTR DTD: 4/4/00 Discussion between the FAA and Department of Defense (DOD) representatives on the Inter-Agency Cartographic Committee regarding depicting terrain in the profile view is ongoing. Initial pilot reaction is that the additional clutter may outweigh any benefit from depicting the profile view. The FAA, DOD, and Jeppesen previously discussed this issue over a year ago and decided to pursue color planview depiction only. However, the FAA will present this safety recommendation to the government/industry charting forum for evaluation. I will keep the Board informed of the FAA's progress on this safety recommendation. NTSB LTR DTD: 6/27/00 The FAA indicated that discussion between the FAA and the Department of Defense (DoD) representatives on the Inter-Agency Cartographic Committee about whether or not to depict terrain in the profile view of approach charts is ongoing. The FAA reports that initial pilot reaction is that the additional clutter may outweigh any benefit from depicting the profile view. The FAA, DoD, and Jeppesen discussed this issue over a year ago and decided to pursue color planview depiction only. However, the FAA reports that it plans to present this safety recommendation to the government/industry charting forum for evaluation. Accordingly, Safety Recommendation A-00-16 is classified "Open Acceptable Response." FAA LTR DTD: 8/21/01 The FAA discussed this safety recommendation at the April 2001 Aeronautical Charting Forum. The group expressed concern about the additional clutter that would result by adding this additional information. The group believes that the current (new) practice of depicting terrain in the planview was sufficient for pilot orientation and awareness of the flying environment in which the approach procedure is conducted. Consensus of the Aeronautical Charting Forum was that this issue should be redelegated to the IACC for resolution. Results of the IACC evaluation may be available at the next meeting of the Aeronautical Charting Forum in October 2001. I will keep the Board informed of the outcome of the IACC study. NTSB LTR DTD: 1/23/02 The FAA notes that Notices to Airmen instructs pilots to adjust aircraft configuration and airspeed to comply with the published angle and that the government publishes a descent rate table in each approach book that converts the published angle and ground speed to a target rate of descent. The FAA states that these procedures, while not providing the specific portrayal in Safety Recommendation A-00-15 (the distance from the airport against the barometric altitude), allow the pilot to accurately plan and monitor the descent rate during a nonprecision approach. The FAA reports that it presented these safety recommendations to the Aeronautical Charting Forum (ACF) in April 2001 for evaluation. The FAA states that much of the resulting discussion on Safety Recommendation A-00-15 centered on clutter and the loss of "real estate" in the planview of procedures where the tabular data would be included. The FAA reports that in considering Safety Recommendation A-00-16, the ACF expressed concern about the additional clutter that would result by including the additional information. The FAA states that the ACF believes that the current practice of depicting terrain in the planview is sufficient for pilot orientation and awareness of the flying environment in which the approach procedure is conducted. The FAA states that the issues in Safety Recommendations A-00-15 and -16 were redelegated to the Inter-Agency Cartographic Committee (IACC) for resolution. Although it appreciates the concerns expressed by the ACF concerning clutter and available space for the information requested, the Safety Board believes that the circumstances of the Korean Air flight 801 accident support the need for these recommendations. Pending the results of the IACC's evaluation and implementation of the recommended actions, Safety Recommendations A-00-15 and -16 are classified "Open Acceptable Response." NTSB LTR DTD: 5/18/04 At the December 12, 2003, meeting, the FAA indicated that it had forwarded this recommendation to the Aeronatical Charting Forum (ACF) and the IACC. The ACF and the IACC opposed revising the approach charts as recommended due to concerns about human factors issues. Specific concerns revolved around chart clutter and difficulty in adequately depicting this information as obstacles. Since the Korean Airlines flight 801 accident, a requirement to depict colored-terrain information in the planview on approach charts has been implemented. The ACF and the IACC viewed this change as adequately providing for situational awareness of the surrounding terrain without mixing more data into an already busy profile view of the approach chart. The Safety Board agrees that the FAA has evaluated the benefits of depicting terrain and other obstacles along a specific approach path on the profile view of approach charts, as recommended. The Board thanks the FAA for sharing the results of its evaluation. Safety Recommendation A-00-16 is classified "Closed-Acceptable Action." 3

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