What killed 179 people and left two survivors was South Korea’s worst commercial aviation disaster. Authorities recovered the two black boxes, or flight recorders, that were expected to provide crucial information about the final moments before the plane exploded in the air. landing on the runway of a regional airport in the south of the country. The investigation is focusing on an apparent landing gear failure and a bird strike.
- What happened to the Boeing 737-800 aircraft?
The 737-800 aircraft, operated by Jeju Air, crashed at Muan International Airport on Sunday morning (29), sliding down the runway on its belly before colliding with a wall, where it exploded in a fireball. The pilot issued an emergency call “mayday” minutes after the control tower warned of the risk of bird strikes. Korean authorities believe a bird may have entered the plane’s engine and caused it to fail. Footage of the crash showed that the plane’s landing gear had not deployed, raising questions about whether it was related to a bird strike.
- What is a bird strike?
Birds pose a risk to aviation because they can be sucked into the turbine or damage other parts of the plane, potentially causing engine failure. In 2009, an Airbus A320 landed in the Hudson River in New York after a bird strike damaged both engines, in an event that became known as the “Miracle on the Hudson” as everyone on board survived.
In the US, there were about 227,000 wildlife strikes involving civil aircraft, including birds, deer and coyotes, between 1990 and 2019, according to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). During that period, 292 human deaths were attributed to wildlife collisions worldwide, according to the FAA.
About 61% of bird strikes involving civil aircraft — any non-military plane — in the U.S. occurred during landing, the FAA reported. Aircraft can operate on one engine for some time and pilots can take other safety measures, such as dumping fuel.
About half of reported bird strikes between 2020 and 2024 occurred less than 500 feet (about 150 meters) high, according to a May report by Jehad Faqir, head of regional safety for Africa and the Middle East at the International Association of Air Transport. He warned of an increasing trend of bird strikes in recent years, saying they “pose a significant operational risk”.
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- What are investigators focusing on?
South Korean authorities will inspect all 101 Boeing 737-800 planes in operation in the country, requesting that Boeing and the engine manufacturer participate in the investigation. While focusing on a possible bird strike, authorities will also investigate other factors, such as the airline’s and airport’s security measures, as well as the possibility that the plane’s power system shut down before the crash. They will also examine whether the plane’s localizer, an instrument to guide the landing, had any influence.
Korean officials will inspect the two black boxes recovered from the wreckage — the flight data recorder and the cockpit voice recorder — on Monday night (30). Officials from the US National Transportation Safety Board are expected to join the investigation.
- What does this mean for Boeing planes?
The Boeing 737 involved in the crash is a predecessor to the latest Max variant. It is considered a reliable work that has undergone routine maintenance checks in a country with great expertise in aircraft services. Worldwide, there are more than 4,000 aircraft of this type in operation.
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The Jeju Air crash is the second major air disaster in less than a week. An incident in Russian airspace led to the crash of an Azerbaijan Airlines passenger aircraft on December 25, killing dozens. In early January, a Japan Airlines Airbus A350 collided with a small plane on the runway in Tokyo, killing five occupants of the stationary plane. A few days later, a door plug came loose on a Boeing 737 Max 9 in flight in the USA due to four missing screws.
Fatal accidents on commercial airlines declined globally last year during a recovery in operations following the Covid pandemic. In 2023, there were 72 fatalities in commercial air transport accidents, compared to 160 in 2022, according to a report by the International Civil Aviation Organization.
© 2024 Bloomberg L.P.
