Jeju Island-KAI Join Hands to Strengthen Safety and Develop Aerospace Industry

Published 16 Jul.2024 14:13(KST)

Jeju Special Self-Governing Province and Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI) have joined hands to enhance safety in Jeju and advance the aerospace industry.

The Jeju Fire Safety Headquarters (Chief Go Min-ja) announced on the 16th that it signed a business agreement with Korea Aerospace Industries at KAI’s facility in Sacheon, Gyeongnam, to establish a cooperative system for improving the operational rate of Jeju’s firefighting helicopters.

Jeju Special Self-Governing Province and Korea Aerospace Industries have joined hands to enhance safety in Jeju and promote the development of the aerospace industry.
[Photo by Jeju Fire Safety Headquarters]

The signing ceremony was attended by Oh Young-hoon, Governor of Jeju Province; Go Min-ja, Chief of Jeju Fire Safety Headquarters; and Kang Gu-young, President of Korea Aerospace Industries Co., Ltd.

The main contents of the agreement include expanding the base for Jeju’s firefighting and other official helicopters, establishing a mutual parts lending system to improve helicopter operational rates, promoting cooperation for sharing technical information and performance upgrades of firefighting aviation mission equipment, and engaging in social contribution activities in Jeju such as promoting the Hometown Love Donation Program.

Through this agreement, Jeju Province will support various matters that contribute to the development of the private space industry, including expanding the base for domestically produced firefighting helicopters, while Korea Aerospace Industries will pursue various measures to strengthen Jeju’s safety infrastructure, such as improving the operational rate of the firefighting helicopter ‘Hallamae’ through prompt parts supply.

The operational rate of Hallamae is expected to improve significantly through this agreement.

Accordingly, continuous and rapid responses to various disaster sites such as fires, rescues, and emergency medical services occurring within the province will become possible.

Additionally, it will enable the swift transfer of critically ill emergency patients, who are difficult to accommodate in local medical institutions, to higher-level hospitals, thereby contributing to improving the survival rate of residents.

This is expected to serve as an opportunity to elevate Jeju’s overall emergency medical system and disaster response capabilities to the next level.

Governor Oh Young-hoon said, “Jeju’s firefighting helicopter Hallamae has maintained Jeju’s reputation for safety by rescuing numerous precious lives through its remarkable performance,” adding, “Through this agreement, we will drastically improve Hallamae’s operational rate and spare no support at the provincial government level to further enhance Jeju’s status as an international safe city.”

He continued, “Jeju Province has great interest in the aerospace industry, a future growth engine, and is actively promoting core policies such as establishing an innovation hub for the private space industry and tourism-oriented Urban Air Mobility (UAM) as future new industries,” adding, “As part of these efforts, we will strengthen close cooperation with Korea Aerospace Industries to make a practical contribution to the development of the domestic private space industry.”

Kang Gu-young, President of Korea Aerospace Industries, said, “The business agreement between KAI and Jeju Province for the smooth operation and market expansion of domestically produced helicopters will be a new step toward public-private coexistence,” adding, “Based on the reliability of the domestically proven utility helicopter ‘Surion,’ we will continuously improve performance and strengthen global export competitiveness so that the domestically produced premium helicopter can play a new role in K-defense industry.”

Meanwhile, Jeju’s firefighting helicopter Hallamae, first introduced in June 2019, has become a driving force in strengthening safety in the Jeju region by saving 288 precious lives in 358 disaster sites to date.