The National Transportation Safety Board determines that the probable cause of the Korean Air flight 801 accident was the captainfs failure to adequately brief and execute the nonprecision approach and the first officerfs and flight engineerfs failure to effectively monitor and cross-check the captainfs execution of the approach. Contributing to these failures were the captainfs fatigue and Korean Airfs inadequate flight crew training. Contributing to the accident was the Federal Aviation Administrationfs (FAA) intentional inhibition of the minimum safe altitude warning system (MSAW) at Guam and the agencyfs failure to adequately manage the system.
The safety issues in this report focus on flight crew performance, approach procedures, and pilot training; air traffic control, including controller performance and the intentional inhibition of the MSAW system at Guam; emergency response; the adequacy of Korean Civil Aviation Bureau (KCAB) and FAA oversight; and flight