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Investigation

The Safety Board was initially notified of this accident about 1200 eastern standard time on August 5, 1997 (about 0300 Guam local time on August 6). A full go-team was assembled and departed that evening from Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland for Fairchild Air Force Base in Washington. At Fairchild, the team boarded another airplane and arrived in Guam about 0830 Guam local time on August 7, 1997. Accompanying the team to Guam was Board Member George Black.

The following investigative teams were formed: Operations, Human Performance, Aircraft Structures, Aircraft Systems, Powerplants, Maintenance Records, Air Traffic Control, Survival Factors, Aircraft Performance, Meteorology, and Search/Fire/Rescue. Specialists were also assigned to conduct the readout of the flight data recorder (FDR) and transcribe the cockpit voice recorder (CVR) in the Safety Board's laboratory in Washington, D.C. The initial CVR transcript was produced in English. However, the CVR group subsequently produced a more detailed transcript in both the English and Korean languages.

Parties to the investigation were the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA); Korean Air Company, Ltd.; Boeing Commercial Airplanes Group; Pratt & Whitney; the National Air Traffic Controllers Association; and Serco Aviation Services, Inc. Assistance was also provided by the U.S. Navy and emergency response personnel in Guam.

In addition, an official from the Korean Civil Aviation Bureau (KCAB) was designated as the Korean Accredited Representative in accordance with the provisions of Annex 13 to the Convention on International Civil Aviation. Further, two air safety investigators from Australia's Bureau of Air Safety Investigations participated in the investigation as technical observers.

Hearing

A public hearing was conducted for this accident on March 24 through 26, 1998, in Honolulu, Hawaii. Presiding over the hearing was Vice Chairman Robert Francis. Parties to the public hearing were the FAA; Serco Aviation Services; Korean Air; Guam Civil Defense, Fire Department, and Police Department; U.S. Navy; International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) Controlled Flight Into Terrain Steering Committee; AlliedSignal; Jeppesen Sanderson, Inc.; and the Air Line Pilots Association.