High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! The article describes accidents and incidents on Korean Air and its predecessor companies Korean National Airlines and KAL. Korean Air had many fatal accidents between 1970 and 1999, during which time it wrote off 16 aircraft in serious incidents and accidents with the loss of 700 lives. The last fatal accident, Korean Air Cargo Flight 8509 in December 1999 led to a review of how Korean cultural attitudes had contributed to its poor crash history. Since then, safety has greatly improved, and the airline ranks among the best in the 21st century.