Questions over airport embankment, bird strikes as South Korea air crash probe continues
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SEOUL – Investigations into what caused the crash of a Jeju Air jet ramped up on Dec 31 as police rushed to identify victims and as families of those killed in South Korea’s deadliest domestic air accident pressed the authorities for more information.
All 175 passengers and four of the six crew were killed Two crew members were pulled out alive.
Remarks in the airport’s operating manual, uploaded early in 2024, said the embankment was too close to the end of the runway and recommended that the location of the equipment be reviewed during a planned expansion.
But a Transport Ministry official said the authorities would need to check the document before replying to questions, however.
South Korea’s Acting President Choi Sang-mok on Dec 30 ordered an emergency safety inspection of the country’s entire airline operation as investigators sought to find out what caused the deadliest air disaster on South Korean soil.
Impatience rose on Dec 31 among exhausted families gathered at the airport as they waited for the bodies of their loved ones to be released.
One bereaved relative, Mr Park Han-shin, said the bodies being held in freezers were prepared for transfer to funeral homes, but the process could take time and urged others to stay patient.
The National Police Agency said it is making all-out efforts by adding personnel and rapid DNA analysers to shorten the identification period. Five bodies remained unidentified as at Dec 31.
The Transport Ministry said a black box flight recorder recovered from the crash site was missing key pieces and the authorities were reviewing how to extract its data.
The flight data recorder (FDR), which tracks aircraft parameters such as altitude and airspeed, among others, is one of the two black boxes that South Korean investigators retrieved from the wreckage. The FDR lost a connector that links the data storage unit to the power storage unit, a senior Transport Ministry official said.
“An expert is continuously looking for ways to restore the data inside the recorder,” Deputy Minister for Civil Aviation Joo Jong-wan said at a briefing on Dec 31. The ministry will try to resolve the issue “as soon as possible”, he said, without clarifying how long it would take.
Inspections of all 101 Boeing 737-800s operated by South Korean airlines were scheduled to be completed by Jan 3, while the Muan International Airport would now remain closed until Jan 7, the Transport Ministry added.
Representatives from the US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), US Federal Aviation Administration and aircraft manufacturer Boeing have joined the investigative body.
The NTSB said in a statement that it sent three investigators, including people with specialities in operational factors and airworthiness, to South Korea to assist the investigation.
“If we need more specialists we will send them,” board chairwoman Jennifer Homendy said.
Questions about embankment
Investigators are examining bird strikes, whether any of the aircraft’s control systems were disabled, and the apparent rush by the pilots to attempt a landing soon after declaring an emergency as possible factors in the crash, fire and transport officials have said.
Officials have also faced pointed questions about design features at the airport
The plane slammed into the embankment at high speed and erupted into a fireball. Bodies and body parts were thrown into surrounding fields and most of the aircraft disintegrated in flames.
“Unfortunately, that thing was the reason that everybody got killed because they literally hit a concrete structure,” Captain Ross “Rusty” Aimer, the chief executive of Aero Consulting Experts, told Reuters. “It shouldn’t have been there.”
Transport Ministry officials said most South Korean airports were built based on International Civil Aviation Organisation rules that recommend a 240m runway end safety area, though a domestic law allows adjusting the location of some installations within a range that does not “significantly affect the performance of the facility”.
“But we’ll look into whether there are any conflicts in our own regulations, and conduct an additional review of our airport safety standards,” Mr Kim Hong-rak, director-general for airport and air navigation facilities policy, told a briefing. The US Federal Aviation Authority uses different standards, he added.
Captain John Cox, chief executive of Safety Operating Systems and a former 737 pilot, said the runway design “absolutely (did) not” meet industry best practices, which preclude any hard structure like a berm within at least 300m of the runway’s end. The airport’s concrete berm appears to be less than half that distance from the end of the pavement, according to Reuters’ analysis of satellite images.
South Korean officials have said it is about 250m from the end of the runway itself, though a paved apron extends past that.
The plane appeared in video footage to be slowing down and in control when it went off the runway, Mr Cox said. “When it hits that berm is when it turns into tragedy.”
Singapore leaders send condolences to South Korean government
In a letter addressed to South Korea’s Acting President Choi Sang-mok on Dec 31, Prime Minister Lawrence Wong said he was deeply saddened to learn of the crash
“Singapore stands in solidarity with the people of the Republic of Korea and everyone impacted by this tragedy,” he said. “Our thoughts are with them in this time of grief.”
Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan also wrote to his counterpart, Mr Cho Tae-yul, to express his condolences to the affected families and those who lost loved ones on the flight. REUTERS, BLOOMBERG
