The tragedy of Sunday's Jeju Air crash in South Korea was like a punch in the face for the country, coming just as it did in the wake of a dramatic political crisis that has left the country reeling. The president and his successor have both been impeached in recent days.
Acting President Choi Sang-mok announced seven days of mourning within two days of taking office as the crash was the country's worst ever, killing 179 people, including the crew and all passengers on board, except for the two surviving flight attendants. The crew plane exploded and disintegrated after hitting a solid obstacle at the “end” of the runway, with an explosion behind the plane.
This tragedy triggered wave of flight cancellations The discount airline was carrying more than 65,000 passengers on domestic and international routes after flight 2216 from Bangkok crashed at 9am, according to The Guardian.
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The plane's “black box” flight recorder has reportedly been found but has not yet been analyzed, leaving more questions than answers about the key events leading up to the ill-fated landing, according to reports on Tuesday.
Aviation safety inspectors and aviation experts from the United States and Boeing have been watching video footage of the catastrophic landing and clearing the wreckage at Muan Airport, 180 kilometers southwest of Seoul, looking for clues about the cause of the crash.
Multiple questions
Multiple issues have been revealed. The first incident occurred when a bird struck the starboard engine just minutes after the airport control tower warned pilots of a flock of birds in the local airspace.
Although the engine did not catch fire, this caused the pilot to send a distress call, which resulted in the control tower allowing the pilot to land from the takeoff end of the runway.
Local media highlighted this quick response as a possible factor in the crash because it may have limited the time the crew had to manually deploy the landing gear if the plane was unable to land automatically.
“Washington Times” Seoul correspondent Andrew Salmon (Andrew Salmon) pointed out on Tuesday, “Three additional landing gear/hydraulic incidents Planes around the world were affected after the Muang crash,” but no one died.
Meanwhile, the Boeing 737-800 reportedly does not suffer from any of the problems that plague Boeing Max aircraft.
Experts believe the first two issues – bird strikes and landing gear – should not be linked; experts say bird strikes are unlikely to prevent the landing gear from deploying.
But because the landing gear failed to deploy, the plane flew at an extremely fast speed and did not actually land until it was along the runway.
The pilot did not appear to have the ability to use flaps or other measures to slow the plane before it hurtled toward the concrete structure at the end of the runway.
The sturdiness of the structure, which is equipped with a “locator” antenna said to guide planes to land, has been criticized by some critics who say the “foldable” structure is far less lethal.
On Monday, South Korean transportation officials said they planned to conduct safety inspections on 101 Boeing 737-800 jets operated by local airlines and review Jeju Air's safety standards. It is said that more than one-third of the aircraft are operated by it.
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