Is the Jeju Air crash related to bird strikes? Aviation experts say bird strikes themselves are unlikely to cause aircraft crashes
- Grace Dean
- BBC News In Engish
179 people died in a plane crash in South Korea.
The plane ran off the runway and hit a wall while landing at Muan International Airport in southwestern South Korea on Sunday morning.
The plane was returning from Bangkok, Thailand, with a total of 181 people on board, and only two crew members were rescued.
Authorities are investigating the cause, with the fire department saying the accident may have been caused by a bird strike and bad weather. However, experts warn that the crash could have been caused by a variety of factors.
Are bird strikes the cause of plane crashes?
The passenger plane involved was a Boeing 737-800. Jeju Air is one of the most popular low-cost airlines in South Korea.
The flight arrived in Muan at approximately 09:00 local time (00:00 GMT).
South Korean transport ministry officials said the plane had attempted to land but was ordered to delay because the airport's air traffic control issued a bird strike alert, warning of the risk of collision with birds.
About two minutes later, the captain sent out a "Mayday" distress signal and air traffic control approved the plane to land from the opposite direction.
A video showed that the plane did not use wheels or other landing gear when landing. The plane slid along the runway and hit a wall, then caught fire and exploded.
A witness told Yonhap news agency he heard a "loud bang" followed by a "series of explosions."
Video footage from the scene showed the plane on fire with thick smoke billowing into the sky before the fire brigade put out the blaze.
Lee Jeong-hyun, director of the Muan Fire Department, said in a televised briefing that the tail of the plane was still recognizable but "the shape of the rest of the body could not be discerned."
He said bird strikes and bad weather may have caused the crash, but the specific cause is still under investigation. The flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder have been recovered, but Yonhap News Agency reported that the former had been damaged.
Local media in South Korea reported that some passengers sent messages to their relatives saying that a bird was "stuck on the wing", making it impossible for the plane to land.
However, authorities have yet to confirm whether the plane actually collided with the bird.
According to Yonhap News Agency, a Jeju Air management official said the accident was not caused by "any maintenance issues."
South Korea's Ministry of Transport noted that the captain of the flight had held the position since 2019 and had more than 6,800 hours of flying experience.
Aviation expert Geoffrey Thomas, editor-in-chief of Aviation News, told the BBC that South Korea and its airlines are considered "best practices in the industry" and that the airline and its aircraft have an "excellent safety record."
He added, "There are so many unexplained aspects of this tragedy."
What is a bird strike?
A bird strike is a collision between an aircraft and a bird during flight. Bird strikes are quite common. For example, according to data from the UK Civil Aviation Authority, more than 1,400 bird strikes were reported in the UK in 2022, of which only about 100 affected aircraft.
The most famous bird strike occurred in 2009, when an Airbus plane successfully landed in the Hudson River in New York after colliding with a flock of geese. All 155 passengers and crew on board survived.
Doug Drury, a professor of aviation at Central Queensland University in Australia, wrote in The Conversation this summer that Boeing's turbofan engines can suffer serious damage from bird strikes.
He said pilots are trained to be especially alert in the early morning or dusk, when bird activity is most active.
However, some aviation experts have expressed doubts that a bird strike could have caused the crash at Muan Airport.
"Usually, they (bird strikes) by themselves do not cause aircraft crashes," aviation expert Thomas told Reuters.
Australian aviation safety expert Geoffrey Dell also said: "I have never seen a bird strike prevent the landing gear from opening."
Who are the passengers on board?
The plane was carrying a total of 175 passengers and six crew members. According to authorities, two of the passengers were from Thailand and the rest were believed to be Koreans. Many were believed to be returning home from the Christmas holiday in Thailand.
The official death toll now stands at 179, making it the deadliest air crash in South Korea's history.
All passengers and four crew members died.
Authorities have now confirmed at least 88 bodies.
Among the dead were five children under the age of 10. The youngest passenger was a three-year-old boy and the oldest was 78 years old, authorities said based on the passenger list.
South Korea's fire agency said two crew members (a man and a woman) survived the accident. They were found in the tail position of the plane and taken to hospital.
More than 1,500 emergency personnel were deployed to the search and rescue effort, including 490 firefighters and 455 police officers, who searched around the runway for parts of the plane and its passengers.
Reactions
South Korea's acting President Choi Sang-moo has declared Muan a special disaster area to mobilize central government funds to support local governments and victims.
All flights to and from Muan International Airport have been cancelled.
Families of the victims have come to the airport hoping to learn about their loved ones. Reuters video footage showed staff reading out loud the names of the victims.
Airport authorities and the Red Cross have set up more than a dozen tents at the airport for the victims' families to mourn privately.
There were cries from the terminal, with some expressing frustration at the slow pace of identifying the victims.
Jeju Air apologized to the families. The company's CEO said at a press conference that it had no record of accidents in the past. Sunday's crash is reportedly the only fatal accident for the airline since its establishment in 2005.
Boeing also expressed condolences to the victims.
South Korea's acting President Choi Sang-moo said, "I express my deepest condolences to the many victims of this accident. I will do my utmost to help the injured recover as soon as possible."
The government has declared a seven-day period of national mourning, during which flags at government agencies will fly at half-mast
Comments
Post a Comment