Incheon Airport: 13 facilities could be badly hit by a magnitude 6.1+ quake

Incheon International Airport, South Korea's main gateway, has a quake-safety gap. For most of its facilities, nobody can say for sure whether they meet today's earthquake standards.

According to Incheon International Airport Corporation, the airport operator, the company will now survey the facilities in question and run detailed assessments.

What happened?

As of this month, the airport has 227 facilities. Only 93 of them (40.9%) have a verified seismic rating.

The other 134, or about 59%, are a question mark. Some haven't had a seismic assessment in more than 20 years, so no one knows whether they meet current design standards.

The operator is a designated disaster-management body. That means it is supposed to assess existing buildings and draw up reinforcement plans. Many gaps have now turned up.

Why is everyone talking about it?

The most striking case is the Power Building B, finished in 2001. It's classed as "special grade," the highest importance level, based on how the building is used and how big it is. Yet it is judged at risk of collapse in an earthquake of magnitude 6.1 or higher.

It isn't alone. South Korea's state audit body worked with the Korea Authority of Land and Infrastructure Safety on a preliminary check of 23 airport facilities that are more than 20 years old. Thirteen of them, including Power Building B, could see parts of the structure collapse or suffer serious damage in a magnitude 6.1–6.5 quake.

Why now?

South Korea tightened its seismic design rules after the 2016 Gyeongju earthquake (magnitude 5.8, the strongest ever recorded in the country) and the 2017 Pohang quake (magnitude 5.4, which caused major damage). The auditors told the operator to find ways to meet those stricter standards.

What's next?

The operator plans to run detailed seismic assessments on all 134 facilities by 2030. Reinforcement plans will follow, depending on the results.

The 13 facilities flagged in the audit come first. An official said detailed assessments for them should be finished within this year, with the rest to follow in turn.