[THE INVESTOR] The head of Jin Air has quit over allegations that he forced a pilot to go ahead with a flight last year despite an engine problem.

The budget carrier unit of Korean Air said the pilot, Kwon Hyuk-min, resigned on June 19. 

The resignation came four weeks after several Korean Air employees claimed that the No. 1 engine of a B777-200 jet would not shut down despite a pilot’s efforts to turn it off after landing at Guam on Sept. 19 last year.

The plane, however, left for Incheon about 70 minutes later without addressing the issue, according to the employees. They said that Kwon, head of the maintenance center at Jin Air at the time, pushed for the flight to go ahead.

However, Jin Air insists that the engine stopped normally after landing at Guam and that fuel left in the fuel pipes seems to have caused some smoke.

The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport said it is investigating whether Jin Air did indeed try to conceal the problem, or if it had acted according to protocol. 

By Song Seung-hyun and newswires (ssh@heraldcorp.com)