U.S. Ambassador Harry Harris visited Incheon International Airport on Wednesday to see how fever checks on U.S.-bound passengers are going, a day after South Korea’s government took over the anti-coronavirus screening mission from airlines.
Harris visited a boarding gate in the Second Terminal of the airport, west of Seoul, and observed officials taking the temperatures of passengers of an Atlanta-bound Korean Air plane and received a briefing about the screening process.
Korea Times
“Terrific visit to Incheon Airport to see 1st-hand ROKG measures to combat COVID-19 & mgmt of travelers to USA. Impressed w/ROK’s robust & comprehensive response efforts to limit the virus’ spread. Thanks to all for the hard work,” he wrote in his Twitter account afterwards.
On Tuesday, the government said it will take over the anti-coronavirus screening mission from airlines and conduct health examinations on passengers boarding flights to the U.S. from the Incheon airport and Gimhae International Airport in the southeastern city of Busan.
You can read more at the link.
This is another example of South Korea being quick to adapt new technology:
Incheon International Airport is set to become the first airport in the world to run self-driving cars starting at the second half of next year.
The Incheon International Airport Corporation said on Friday it will conduct a three-month trial run during the first half of 2020, before operating two autonomous vehicles in the second half.
The project aims to promote smart technologies at the airport.
While priority for the use of the driverless cars will be given to seniors and people with disabilities, all passengers will be able to access them at terminal arrival gates and immigration checkpoints.
Users will be able to insert their destinations on the vehicle’s touch screen or place their flight tickets on a separate device within the vehicle.
KBS World Radio
Via a reader tip comes this article showing the amount of illegal weapons that are seized at airports in South Korea:
Nineteen people have been caught this year trying to bring guns onto planes in Korea, a sharp increase from just one from last year.
According to Rep. Park Wan-su of the main opposition Liberty Korea Party, Monday, 25 such cases occurred at airports across the country between January 2014 and this September.
The number changed little from two in 2014 to three in 2015 and one in 2016, but it has soared at an alarming rate over the past nine months.
During that period, 25 guns, 1,368 bullets, 395 knives and 1,374 other weapons such as stun guns have been seized.
“All the nation’s airports and related institutions should beef up their security in response to an increasing number of such attempts,” Park said.
According to Rep. Park Chan-woo of the same party, 34 people were caught at Incheon International Airport trying to smuggle guns into the country between January 2012 and this August.
During that period, 2,819 illegal weapons, including 1,483 bullets and 426 knives, were seized. The lawmaker said 45.8 percent of them came from the United States. [Korea Times]
You can read more at the link, but I wonder how many of these guns found are from people forgetting they had one packed in their bag or were they legitimately trying to smuggle it into Korea?
It is going to be interesting to see how useful these robots will be for travelers in such a busy airport:
The rise of robots hasn’t exactly gone smoothly, but companies are determined to get it right. Today, LG announced that it’s deploying a fleet of robots at Incheon International Airport in Seoul, South Korea.
This isn’t the first we’ve heard of these adorable robot friends. LG announced them earlier this year, and they’ve been hanging out in the Seoul airport for the last five months as part of a beta test. During that time, LG engineers have been testing and improving their performance, while the robots presumably loitered and caused trouble. But now that they’re out of their rebellious teenage years, they’re ready to be pressed into service. This is still considered a trial — after all, LG doesn’t want the robots becoming suicidal and launching themselves into a fountain to end it all.
There are two robots that are in service: an Airport Guide Robot and an Airport Cleaning Robot. The Airport Guide Robot is in place to interact with passengers. It can understand four languages — Korean, English, Chinese and Japanese — thanks to LG’s voice recognition software. It can tell you where a restaurant is located or escort late passengers straight to their gate with a quick boarding pass scan. The Cleaning Robot is in place to make sure the airport stays tidy by monitoring the areas that need the most frequent cleaning — so in other words, you’ll probably see this little guy in the bathroom the next time you’re at the Seoul airport. [Engadget]
https://twitter.com/pearswick/status/736135386162860033
