South Korean officials have it he promised to find out what caused it A Boeing 737-800 passenger jet operated by Jeju Air caught fire while attempting to land over the weekend, killing all but two of the 181 people on board. A day after the disaster, there were still far more questions than answers about the nation's worst aviation disaster in decades.
Authorities ordered an immediate search of all 737-800 planes operated by the country's airlines – dozens of planes in total – after the crash, but there was still no clear indication whether system malfunction, human error, or a combination of factors. caused the accident.
Here's a look at what we know about the Jeju Air crash, and some key questions arising from the crash.
What happened in the South Korean plane crash?
Jeju Air flight 7C 2216 departed from Bangkok, Thailand, and checked in to land on Sunday at Muan International Airport in southern South Korea.
After an initial attempt to land failed, the Boeing 737-800 received a bird strike warning from the ground control center. He then went up again before trying to land a second time.
Two minutes later, the flight crew sent a distress signal and attempted to land on another runway. The plane went down three minutes later without lowering its nose landing gear.
It skidded onto the runway at high speed, went over the end of the runway and crashed into a concrete fence, exploding into a fireball. The only survivors were two crew members who were rescued from the tail section.
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Observers say that videos of the crash showed the plane was suffering from engine problems, but that a lack of landing gear may have been the main cause of the crash.
Officials from South Korea's Transport Ministry said the plane's flight data and cockpit audio recordings – known as “black boxes” – were transferred to a research center at Seoul Gimpo International Airport before being analysed. The ministry said earlier that it would take months to complete the investigation into the accident.
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Jeju Air said the crash was not due to “any maintenance issues,” according to South Korean news agency Yonhap, and aviation expert Geoffrey Thomas to BBC News that South Korean airlines were considered to be largely following “industry best practices” and that the airline and Jeju Air had “an excellent safety record”.
A South Korean plane slid into a fence protecting antennas
Transport Ministry officials said on Monday they would investigate whether the fence hit by the plane – a concrete structure containing a set of antennas designed to guide aircraft safely during landing – should have been removed. made with lighter materials that break more easily on impact. They said they were also trying to find out if there were communication problems between air traffic controllers and the pilot.
The location of the localizer antennas near the end of the runway behind the unforgiving fortifications is likely to be a focus for the investigators..
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“Normally, on an airport with a runway at the end, you don't have a wall,” Christian Beckert, an aviation safety expert and pilot for German carrier Lufthansa told Reuters news agency. “You might have ( often) an engineering material arresting system, which allows the aircraft to enter the ground slightly” to slow it down.
Could a bird strike have caused the Jeju Air disaster?
Lee Jeong-hyun, chief of the Muan local fire department, said on Sunday that a bird strike and bad weather may have contributed to the accident, but stressed that the cause was still under investigation.
According to CBS News partner network BBC News, one passenger on the plane had texted a relative before the crash and said a bird was “stuck in the wing” and could not come. ashore, but officials have not yet confirmed if there were any. bird strike
Geoffrey Thomas, the expert named by the BBC and editor of Airline News, told Reuters separately that he doubted that a bird strike alone could have caused the fatal accident.
“Bird strikes are not unusual. Undercarriage problems are not unusual. Bird strikes occur much more frequently, but they usually do not cause the loss of an aircraft by themselves,” he said. .
It was not clear what, if any engine or system failure the flight crew may have had in the last few minutes of the ill-fated flight. Experts have said that video of the crash did not show any apparent movement of the plane's flaps as it descended, which could have helped drag the plane, suggesting that hydraulic pressure may have been involved. loss that controls the mechanical devices.
The hydraulic control systems work independently, and experts said an engine problem is unlikely to affect their operation.
The aircraft also has a manual command for pilots to lower the landing gear in the event of an electrical or mechanical failure. It was unclear whether the Jeju Air team had time to manually deflate the nose wheels, or whether another factor might have prevented them from doing so.
A long, tough year for US aviation giant Boeing
The crash capped a troubled 2024 for US aviation giant Boeing, which has grappled with safety problemsa machinists strike and stock prices fall.
Experts say the 737-800 aircraft is a more reliable model than the company's much maligned 737 Max jetliners, which were linked to fatal accidents in 2018 and 2019.
However, South Korean authorities said they will conduct safety checks on all 737-800s operated by domestic airlines, including 39 by Jeju Air.
contributed to this report.
