Asia-Pacific

ROK troops shoot at civilian airliner by mistake

(Agencies)
Updated: 2011-06-18 13:44

SEOUL - The Republic of Korea's (ROK) troops fired at a commercial aircraft flying near the tense sea border with the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), misidentifying it as one of DPRK's jet fighters, but no damage occurred, local news media reported on Saturday.

The Yonhap news agency, quoting a military source, said two marine corps soldiers guarding the waters off the South's western city of Incheon, fired their K-2 rifles for about 10 minutes at dawn on Friday. The plane was later identified as an Asiana Airlines flight making its descent to Seoul airport.

Yonhap and other news reports said the plane, carrying 119 passengers and crew on a flight from China, was undamaged as it was about 500 to 600 meters out of the range of the K-2 rifles, the news reports said.

Yonhap News Agency and other local media said the soldiers believed the plane was flying north of the normal air corridor. Asiana officials told the news agency the plane never left its schduled course.

"We checked yesterday through the air force and the airport control centre to make sure there were no abnormalities such as being off course," Yonhap quoted a company official as saying.

An airline official confirmed the plane was an Airbus A320 but made no other comment.

Yonhap and other news reports quoted Marine Corps officers as saying troops would undergo thorough training on how to identify civil aircraft. Airlines will be asked to ensure their planes do not deviate from set courses.