The Crash Of Asiana Flight 991 & A Pilot’s Seven Life Insurance Policies

On July 28 2011 Asiana Cargo Flight OZ 991, a Boeing 747-48EF/SCD, flying from Seoul’s Incheon International Airport (ICN) to Shanghai’s Pudong International Airport (PVG) reported a fire in the cargo hold then crashed into the sea roughly 65 miles west Jeju City, on Jeju Island, killing the two pilots on board, Sang-Gi Choi, 52 and Jeong-Woong Lee, 43. As investigators recover debris from Asiana Flight 991 and work to determine what cause the fire and ultimately cause the Boeing 747 to crash into the sea, an unexpected piece of information has come to light. One of the two Asiana pilots had taken out seven separate property and life insurance polices in the month prior to the crash totaling US$2.84-million.

 

While Asiana Airlines states that pilots generally have multiple life insurance policies due to the hazardous nature of their job and that the airline has no control over its pilots’ personal insurance polices, the timing of the insurance policies taken out by pilot earning an estimated US$188,000 annually is unusual. As the two pilots individually had 14,123 flight hours  and 5,211 flight hours, either pilot taking out seven new polices at once is even more unusual. Presently the involved insurance companies are looking into the accident, however given the information made available by South Korea’s Transportation Safety Authority it is expected that the insurance policies will be paid without any delays.

 

The circumstances surrounding the crash of Asiana Flight 911 may never be fully discovered, however these details add an unexpected layer surrounding this crash investigation.

 

Happy Flying!

7 Comments

  1. Wow dude. With no proof what so ever, you have basically accused a pilot of committing suicide in order to commit insurance fraud.

    You have no soul.

  2. John,

    The existence of the insurance policies have been verified, the timeline they had been taken out have been verified. Other information has been verified with the airline.

    Proof exists.

    Happy Flying!

    -Fish

  3. Fish,

    Did the report happen to state if the policies were new or replacements? We all know that some news reports leave out details to make them more interesting.

    Reorganizing ones insurance coverage is not the same as taking out all new policies and wildly increasing the limits.

    Just guessing, of course, but willing to assume that there’s more to the story.

  4. Interesting story Fish. I didn’t see you accusing anyone. Could be a bizarre coincidence. Maybe not.

  5. Haha, I have Been flying in a war zone and I still only have the 400k that every service member gets! Vary suspicious!

  6. Steve,

    The indication from Asiana, who is trying to not discuss this at all, is that these were seven new policies. They won’t elaborate further or disclose which pilot took out the seven policies.

    Happy Flying!

    -Fish

  7. Wow! That’s heavy information. I hope this is investigated thoroughly and nothings gets swept under the carpet. No one is accusing anyone of anything, but it does look suspicious.

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