After an airplane belly-landed at Muan International Airport on Sunday, skidded into a wall, and erupted into flames, killing 179 people in South Korea’s bloodiest aviation crash ever, a thorough inquiry was under way on Monday.
There are still unanswered questions about what specifically went wrong with Jeju Air Flight 2216 and why there were only two survivors and such a high death toll.
Desperate to know what happened to their loved ones, hundreds of family members spent the night camped out outside Muan County’s international airport, asking to view their remains.
What we currently know about the fatal collision and the cause investigation is as follows:
What happened?
Flight-tracking site FlightAware reports that Jeju Air Flight 2216 departed Bangkok just after 2 a.m. local time (2 p.m. ET Saturday).
The pilot of the Boeing 737-800 plane issued a “bird strike” warning at approximately 8:59 a.m. (6:59 p.m. ET on Saturday), which is used to warn of a collision between at least one bird and an aircraft, before declaring “mayday,” according to a briefing on Monday by Yu Kyung-soo, Director of Aviation Safety Policy at South Korea’s Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, or MOLIT.
After a go-around, the plane was given the all-clear to enter Runway 19 at 9:01 a.m., according to Yu. According to him, the plane landed at the one-third point, or nearly 4,000 feet, of the runway in just one minute. However, Yu claimed that after a minute or so, it swerved off the runway and into a wall.
According to Yu, the incident happened shortly after the airport’s control tower had issued a bird activity warning at 8:57 a.m.
The plane was shown belly-landing at Muan International Airport, rolling down the runway, colliding with a wall, and exploding in flames on the disaster footage. The video seems to indicate that some or all of the landing gear on the aircraft failed to deploy.
According to South Korea’s national fire department, the crash claimed 179 lives, making it the year’s deadliest aviation tragedy and what seems to be Jeju Air’s first deadly incident since the low-cost carrier’s founding in 2005.
What caused the crash?
To date, the cause of the crash has not been determined.
According to officials at a briefing on Monday, the NTSB is anticipated to send a U.S. investigation team to help with the investigation. Consultations are also continuing with Boeing, the aircraft manufacturer, and CFM International, a U.S.-French joint venture that produced the plane’s engine.
On Monday morning, the Flight Data Recorder and Cockpit Voice Recorder, two black boxes that were recovered from the airplane, were moved to a testing facility.
Investigators are investigating whether the plane’s apparent loss of control was caused by a single bird or by a swarm. Minutes after the Muan International Airport control tower had issued a bird activity warning, the pilot reported a bird strike.
Additionally, the plane’s collision with the external wall of an azimuth, or localizer, facility is being investigated. During a briefing on Monday, Ju Jong-wan, Director of MOLIT’s Aviation Policy Office, stated.
“The azimuth facility cannot be arbitrarily installed; there are installation regulations, which we are currently reviewing,” Ju stated.
What we know about the victims
When the plane crashed, there were 181 people on board, including crew members and small children.
According to Ju, at least two of the passengers were Thai, but the majority are thought to have been Korean.
According to officials, 82 of the deceased were men and at least 84 were women.
South Korea’s Education Ministry reported on Monday that at least 11 of the fatalities were students in elementary, middle, and high schools. Three were in middle school, four were in high school, and at least four were in elementary school.
“One victim was identified as a preschool child born in 2021 and attending daycare,” stated Gu Yeon-hee, a spokesman for the Ministry of Education.
At Muan airport, distraught relatives of those killed in the tragedy have gathered to see their loved ones’ bodies and demand answers about what happened to them.
Park Han-shin, who lost his brother in the collision, is the leader of the group the families have created.
On behalf of the families, Park made several demands on Monday, including that a memorial be erected inside the airport and that Jeju Air pay for the funeral expenses of the deceased.
During the national mourning period, the Seoul municipal government announced Monday that it will minimize or cancel year-end celebrations and erect a collective memorial shrine for the victims.
Park added that in order to preserve crash victims, the airport needs more freezer containers. The bereaved families are becoming increasingly concerned about the lack of storage for bodies.
Park concluded by saying that the families will require recompense for their loss as well as clarification on the precise circumstances surrounding the deaths of their loved ones.
“You need to clearly establish what went wrong, why it went wrong, and allocate appropriate compensation and procedures accordingly,” he stated.
The survivors
Two flight crew members, a male and a woman, survived the crash on Sunday. According to Ju, both were conscious despite their moderate injuries.
According to Ju Woong, director of Ewha Woman’s University Seoul Hospital, one of the survivors was a 33-year-old flight attendant who sustained several injuries, including traumatic spine injuries and cracked ribs, as reported by South Korea’s Yonhap news agency.
According to Ju Woong, the flight attendant, who was only known by his last name, Lee, stated, “I had already been rescued when I woke up.” Despite being in critical care, they had good communication skills.
According to Ju Woong, there are currently no signs of memory loss or anything like.
New safety measures
Plans for further safety measures have already been outlined by officials.
MOLIT said on Monday that a special probe into the Boeing B737-800 aircraft model would begin.
Domestic low-cost carriers employ the aircraft model extensively; Jeju Air is the one with the most, operating 39 aircraft. Tway Air, Jin Air, Eastar Jet, Air Incheon, and Korean Air are more operators.
We’ll look at adherence to a number of rules, such as operational logs, pre- and post-flight inspections, and maintenance,” Ju stated.
He added there would also be an investigation into bird strikes and rules designed to lessen them.
“We will carefully review bird strike concerns for new airport projects and work with experts to develop additional measures,” he continued.
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