Originally Posted by Helena Handbaskets
I like the ICN airport, but there's one negative about ICN that I've never seen mentioned before.
ICN is about 6 km or 6 miles or so from the border with North Korea. And the one time I flew out of there, we took off on a bearing heading almost directly for the border. Kim Jong Il was being especially belligerent at the time, so it was a little unnerving watching the flight map display as our plane inched closer and closer to the line before turning west, south, and then east to head for San Francisco.
I couldn't stop thinking about those North Korean anti-aircraft gunners on the other side of that line, who watch civilian aircraft coming at them several times an hour, suspecting that any air attack that might come could very well include radar signatures disguised as civilian flights, and they have about 30 seconds reaction time.
A disputed "border incursion" resulting in a shoot-down would sure make a convenient excuse for an unstable, desperate tyrant who wanted to provoke a crisis.
I never realized ICN was only 6 miles or 6 km from the North Korea border. I suspected it was close from looking at maps such as AirShow, but I didn't think it was that close. Anyone know the actual distance?
On a recent flight from LAX-ICN I was sitting on the upper deck of the 744 on the right side of the aircraft. As we approached Korea, the flight path took us along the South / North border per AirShow, on the South side of course
. Being on the right side of the aircraft, it was interesting to look out the window and see all of the light of South Korea and then absolutely no light (was early morning prior to sun rise). I'm certain what I saw was the border, considering electricity is scarce/non-existant in many parts of North Korea. As we were at 30,000 ft, I am sure we were further from the border than it seemed as we made our trek across Korea.
We landed from the south, IIRC, with a northbound heading at ICN. Upon departure out of ICN we took off to the north and then turned west and to the south with a heading towards Taiwan, as this particular flight was an ICN-KUL flight. It didn't seem as if we were that close to the border -- with the aircraft speed, even at takeoff, if the border was 6 miles or 6 km from the airport, it wouldn't take long to cross it. I don't believe the runway heading is a true north either, perhaps at a northwest / southeast heading.
With the number of flights in and out of ICN on a daily basis, I wouldn't worry. I'd probably be more worried about a commercial aircraft losing contact with ATC or going off course at DCA or in the WAS area.
I like ICN and I'd be happy to use ICN again when the need arises.
SDF_Traveler