Air safety experts questioned this Tuesday (31) the positioning of an embankment at the airport in which a plane with passengers from South Korea collided after skidding at the end of the runway, resulting in the country’s deadliest air disaster.
All 175 passengers and four of the six crew died last Sunday (29), when the , crashed into a sand and concrete embankment and turned into a fireball.
What prompted the pilot to attempt to land after declaring an emergency is still being investigated.
But comments in the airport’s operations manual, published in early 2024, said the landfill was too close to the end of the runway and recommended that the location of the equipment be revised during a planned expansion.
A Transport Ministry official said on Tuesday that authorities will need to check the documents before answering questions.
Experts criticized the positioning of the landfill, which houses navigation equipment.
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“Unfortunately, that thing was the reason they all died because they literally hit a concrete structure,” Capt. Ross Aimer, chief executive of Aero Consulting Experts, told Reuters. “It shouldn’t be there.”
The Boeing 737-800 “black box” flight data recorder recovered from the crash site was missing a key connector and authorities are looking at how to extract its data, but data recovery from the cockpit voice recorder has already begun, according to the Ministry of Transport.
Inspections on all 101 B737-800s operated by South Korean airlines are expected to be completed by Jan. 3, but the airport will be closed until Jan. 7, the ministry added in a statement.
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Investigators are considering possible reasons such as the aircraft for the pilot’s apparent rush to attempt a landing so soon after declaring an emergency.
Transport Ministry officials said most South Korean airports were built in accordance with International Civil Aviation Organization rules, which recommend a 240-meter safety zone at the end of the runway. However, a domestic law allows adjustments in a range that “does not significantly affect” the performance of the installation.
