In the late 1990s, Korean Air was known for being "an industry pariah, notorious for fatal crashes" due to its extremely poor safety record as one of the world's most dangerous airlines.
[1][2][3][4] In 1999, Korea's President Kim Dae-jung described the airline's safety record as "an embarrassment to the nation" and chose Korean Air's smaller rival, Asiana, for a flight to the United States.
Korean Air's deadliest incident was Flight 007 which was shot down by the Soviet Union on September 1, 1983.
The last fatal passenger accident was the Korean Air Flight 801 crash in 1997, which killed 229 people.
[10][11] Several academics interviewed by CNBC in 2013 shared the belief that the hierarchical, linear nature of Korean social interactions could be a contributor to the airline's safety issues.