Boeing 747-300 accident near Nimitz Hill, August 6, 1997
On August 6, 1997 at about 9:42 am local time, a Boeing 747-300, registered H7468, was destroyed in an accident near Nimitz Hill (Agana International Airpo airport). It was a flight of an unrecorded kind under foreign airline rules (Part 129). 228 people were killed and 26 people were seriously injured. The weather was instrument conditions (cloud, fog or low visibility).
The NTSB's probable cause their words, unchanged
the captain's failure to adequately brief and execute the nonprecision approach and the first officer's and flight engineer's failure to effectively monitor and cross-check the captain's execution of the approach. Contributing to these failures were the captain's fatigue and Korean Air’s inadequate flight crew training. Contributing to the accident was the Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA) intentional inhibition of the minimum safe altitude warning system (MSAW) at Guam and the agency's failure to adequately manage the system.
Source: NTSB aviation accident database, copy made October 5, 2026. Docket and reports at the NTSB.
What the record shows
- Date
- August 6, 1997 · about 9:42 am local time
- Place
- Nimitz Hill · Agana International Airpo
- Type
- Accident
- Injuries
- 228 people were killed and 26 people were seriously injured.
- Weather
- instrument conditions (cloud, fog or low visibility)
- Aircraft
- Boeing 747-300 · all 747-300s on the register
- Registration
- H7468 · no longer on the register · serial 22487
- Damage
- Destroyed
- Flight
- Flight of an unrecorded kind · foreign airline rules (Part 129)
The NTSB's narrative final · quoted from the NTSB record
The Board's full report is available at http://www/ntsb.gov/publictn/publictn.htm, AAR-00/01, PB00-910401. On August 6, 1997, about 0142:26 Guam local time, Korean Air flight 801, a Boeing 747-3B5B (747-300), Korean registration HL7468, operated by Korean Air Company, Ltd., crashed at Nimitz Hill, Guam. Flight 801 departed from Kimpo International Airport, Seoul, Korea, with 2 pilots, 1 flight engineer, 14 flight attendants, and 237 passengers on board. The airplane had been cleared to land on runway 6 Left at A.B. Won Guam International Airport, Agana, Guam, and crashed into high terrain about 3 miles southwest of the airport. Of the 254 persons on board, 228 were killed, and 23 passengers and 3 flight attendants survived the accident with serious injuries. The airplane was destroyed by impact forces and postcrash fire. Flight 801 was operating in U.S. airspace as a regularly scheduled international passenger service flight under the convention on International Civil Aviation and the provisions of 14 Code of Federal Regulations Part 1239 and was on an instrument flight rules flight plan.
The complete narrative as the NTSB published it. The NTSB's docket holds the report as a PDF and any photographs, statements and other documents from the investigation.
The factual record from the NTSB's investigation tables, in plain English
Pilot
- Certificate: airline transport pilot
- Ratings: multi-engine land; instrument: airplane
- Medical certificate: Unknown
- Seat: left
The aircraft
- Airframe total time: 50,105 hours
- Last inspection: continuous airworthiness programme, December 16, 1996
- Maximum gross weight: 850,000 lb
- Seats: 385
- Landing gear: retractable
- Engine: P&W JT9D-7R4G2 (turbofan); 0 hours total
- Fire on the ground
The flight
- Departed from: SEL Seoul
- Destination: KGUM Agana
- Flight plan: IFR
- Runway 6
- A second pilot was aboard
Weather at the time
- Light: night, dark
- Wind: from 090° at 6 knots
- Visibility: 4 statute miles
- Sky: broken clouds at 2,500 ft; scat at 1,600 ft
- Temperature: 81°F (27°C), dew point 77°F (25°C)
- Altimeter: 29.00 inHg
- Observation at 1:32 am from GUM
Injuries
| Fatal | Serious | Minor | None | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Crew | 14 | 3 | ||
| Passengers | 214 | 23 |
Documents from the investigation the NTSB's docket: the evidence folder behind the report
The docket, the folder of records gathered during an investigation (maintenance records, photographs, witness statements, examinations), has not been read from the NTSB for this case yet; the list appears here once it has. Open the docket at the NTSB.
Everything on this page comes from the NTSB's public records. The narrative, probable cause and findings are the NTSB's own words; the coded tables behind the report are written out in plain English, with pilots' ages, home towns and medical details left out. The documents and photographs are the NTSB's docket, shown as the NTSB released them. This site's own text never names anyone involved. A preliminary report can change; the final report usually follows one to two years later, and the page is refreshed when it does.