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As an investigation into mainland South Korea’s deadliest plane crash begins, experts are questioning whether a bird strike may have caused the undercarriage to malfunction.
Jeju Air Flight 7C2216 failed to make an emergency landing at South Korea’s Maung International Airport on Sunday morning, killing all but two of the 181 people on board. The plane arrived from Bangkok, the capital of Thailand, carrying dozens of Christmas vacationers.
The passengers included five children under the age of 10, including a 3-year-old.
Horrifying footage showed the plane crossing the runway, crashing into a brick wall and bursting into flames. The only survivors were the two crew members sitting in the back of the plane.
For the latest updates on plane crash investigations, click here to read our blog
This incident was the highest number of fatalities in a plane crash in the history of South Korea, which has an excellent track record in aviation safety over the past 20 years.
“Why didn’t the fire engines spray foam on the runway? Why weren’t they present when the plane landed? And why did the plane land so far below the runway? And why was there a brick wall at the end of the runway?” said Airline News Editor Jeffrey Thomas.
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South Korean authorities are investigating the cause of the crash, including the possibility of a bird strike, after finding that air traffic controllers had warned the pilot of the risk of collision just three minutes before the plane hit the runway. It was announced that there was. One minute after the warning, the pilot issued a mayday.
According to local media, a passenger on the flight sent a text message to his family saying the bird was “caught between the wings” and the plane was unable to land. “Should I have the last word?” one passenger wrote.
Under global aviation regulations, South Korea will lead the civil investigation into the crash, and the National Transportation Safety Board in the United States, where the plane was designed and manufactured, will also automatically be involved. Jeju Air claimed the crash was not due to “maintenance issues.”
According to South Korea’s Ministry of Transport, the flight data recorder was discovered at 11:30 local time (2:30 GMT), about two and a half hours after the crash, and the cockpit voice recorder was discovered at 2:24 p.m.
However, investigators later told South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency that the voice recorder had been damaged and that it could take up to a month to decipher it.
Thomas said the flight data recorder is the “heartbeat of the plane” and should provide clues to how the accident happened. There can be several reasons for the crash.
But experts said it was unlikely that a bird strike was the sole cause of the landing gear failure.
“Bird strikes are not uncommon, and undercarriage problems are not uncommon. Bird strikes occur much more frequently, but bird strikes alone usually do not result in the loss of an airplane,” Thomas said. .
“I’ve never seen a bird strike prevent landing gear deployment,” Australian aviation safety expert Jeffrey Dell said.
Had the flock of birds been sucked in, CFM International’s engine could have been struck by the birds, but it would not have shut down the engine immediately and would have given the pilot time to deal with the situation. Mr. Dell said.
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Experts also questioned why the pilots did not have time to slow down as normal during an emergency belly landing.
Normally, with a belly landing, “you’re landing on the engines and it’s going to be a bumpy ride,” Thomas said.
“If you arrive with minimal fuel, the fire trucks come, cover the runway with foam, and land at the very end of the runway, it usually ends up being OK.”
Vice Minister of Transport Ju Jeong-wan dismissed concerns about the use of brick walls as a safety measure, saying there is a “safety zone with a green buffer area before reaching the outer wall” at both ends of the runway. .
He added that the airport was designed “in accordance with standard aviation safety guidelines, even if the walls appear closer than they actually are.”
According to the Department of Transportation, the captain had been in the same rank since 2019 and had logged 6,823 hours of flight time. The co-pilot had been in the same rank since 2023 and had logged approximately 1,650 flight hours.
The Boeing 737-800 involved in the crash is one of the busiest airliners in the world and generally has a strong safety record, with Boeing’s recent safety crisis It was developed long before the MAX model involved.
