SEOUL—A private helicopter collided into a high-rise apartment due to a dense fog in Gangnam district, southern Seoul killing both pilots.
The chopper owned by LG Electronics Inc. crashed into the upper section of a 38-story apartment building on on November 16. The helicopter’s rotors broke windows and the outer wall of the building from the 21st to 27th floors.
The two pilots, Park In-kyu, 58, and Koh Jong-jin, 37, were the only people in the helicopter. Park was a veteran pilot with about 7,000 hours of flight time, LG officials said.
“I heard a helicopter flying and then a massive bang. I thought a war broke out,” said Cho Hyun-deok, a residence living on the 26th floor of the I-Park apartment. “I was scared. Later when I looked out the window, I saw that a helicopter crashed.”
Fire fighters said no one in the building or on the ground was hurt.
The building appears to be fine, but a safety inspection will be conducted, according to a government anti-disaster official.
The helicopter took off from Gimpo Airport in western Seoul at 8:46 a.m. local time and was on its way to a heliport in Jamsil near the apartment.
“It seemed that the chopper lost visibility due to thick fog,” said an official from the National Emergency Management Agency.
The Ministry of Land and Transport said on Sunday that its investigation team will analyze the data recorder and black box from the chopper to determine the exact cause of the accident. However, according to Kim Jae-young, chief of the Seoul Regional Aviation Administration under the Transport Ministry, the analysis could take up to six months to be completed.
Meanwhile, there is a growing controversy that the crash occurred not because of fog, but due to smog from China that has affected South Korea over past several days.
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