Earlier today, a Korean Air Boeing 777 operating KE71 from Seoul to Vancouver declared an emergency to the east of Japan.
Korean Air Boeing 777 Seoul-Vancouver Declares Emergency…
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Korean Air flight KE71 between Seoul and Vancouver is a routine scheduled flight, with today’s rotation being operated by HL8210, one of the airline’s Boeing 777 aircraft.
As per data from Planespotters.net, HL8210 is a 13.3 year old aircraft that started out life with the carrier in July 2010.
Of the 777-300ER variant, the carrier has 25 of them, of which all of them are in active service.
KE71 departed Seoul at 1822 local time, and proceeded eastbound towards the Pacific Ocean to Vancouver.
Upon reaching the Pacific Ocean entry point, the Korean Air Boeing 777 declared an emergency. However, we do not know the status of the aircraft following ADS-B coverage being lost.
There are no reports as of yet to suggest that the aircraft has crashed amid concerns on social media about the flight, so at this time, it is too early to give additional updates on this flight.
Upon checking RadarBox and FlightRadar24, the Vancouver-bound flight lost signal at the same point. AviationSource continues to monitor the situation for any updates, including where it has diverted to, with Tokyo looking the most likely point currently.
The last tracked position of KE71 was near an area called Ishinomaki. AviationSource will approach Korean Air for a comment on the cause of this emergency, and upon acquiring updates about the aircraft’s position, we will update the piece accordingly.
UPDATE #1 @ 1318 UK time – Korean Air have commented and things appear to be fine:
“It has been confirmed that there is no problem with the aircraft and that it is operating normally.”
In this case, it looks like a fault with ADS-B coverage which caused the 7700 squawk alert on flight tracking applications such as FlightRadar24.
UPDATE #2 @ 1350 UK time – KE71 has appeared back on the radar following the ADS-B blackout in the area which caused concern over social media earlier today.
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