The government of South Korea started Korean Air in 1962. It became a private company in 1969. Korean Air carried more than 21 million passengers in 2008.
Since 1970, Korean Air has had eight incidents that resulted in injury or death to passengers or crewmembers, or damage to the aircraft. Many of the accidents resulted in the death of everyone aboard the aircraft. In 1997, a Korean Air jet crashed short of the runway during a landing in Guam, resulting in the deaths of 23 crewmembers and 207 passengers. Sixteen passengers that survived. Another Korean Air Jet crashed in Shanghai, China in 1999, resulting in the deaths of eight people.
Korean Air has addressed a variety of factors to improve the safety of the airline. Korean Air has invested more than $5.4 billion in the last 10 years to improve safety by updating its fleet of aircraft and increasing employee training. Korean Air also uses flight simulator training provided by Airbus and Boeing to train its pilots.
