Jeju Air mistakenly filled up Chinese fuel and was forced to ground its flights, forcing passengers to take other flights

A South Korean Jeju Air passenger plane mistakenly filled up with fuel specially supplied to Chinese aircraft in Mongolia last month. The fuel may contain unknown additives, causing the flight to be grounded. Passengers could only transfer to an alternative flight provided later. This incident was not revealed by Korean media until today (18th).

According to "YTN", the Jeju Air flight was using a Boeing aircraft and was about to fly back to Incheon from Ulaanbaatar, the capital of Mongolia. However, it used Chinese aviation fuel when refueling, which may contain additives not approved by the passenger aircraft manufacturer. It was discovered after 14 minutes that the wrong fuel was refueled and the flight was immediately aborted.

After the maintenance technician contacted Boeing and learned that it was best not to let the plane take off, it was finally decided to drain the previously added fuel. Passengers revealed that as far as they knew, the passenger plane was to be filled with JET A-1 aviation kerosene, but it was added to the fuel used by Chinese aircraft.

After South Korea's Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism launched an investigation, it was found that Jeju Air did not follow standard procedures when refueling, which led to the wrong fuel refueling. In this regard, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism reminded South Korea's major airlines to be careful not to refuel with unapproved aviation fuel if they have flights to and from China or Mongolia, and encouraged operators to "depart with full fuel" when taking off from South Korea to avoid having to refuel in China or Mongolia.