“I don’t know what a wall was doing there, Yes, I can tell you that all airports in the civilized world require certifications, there are standards set by the ICAO and National authorities review and certify the facilities in each country. The tracks have certain lengths and it is not very normal for there to be a concrete wall, but maybe it was at the appropriate distances. I want to believe that someone authorized it.” This is what Sergi Giménez, a lawyer at Augusta Abogados, a firm of aviation security experts, says.
One day after the tragedyseveral questions remain open about what went wrong in the most serious plane crash of 2024in which 179 passengers died aboard Jeju Air aircraft 2216, upon landing at Muan airport, in South Korea.
Can a flock of birds shoot down a plane? Is it normal for there to be a concrete wall at the end of a landing strip? Didn’t you have enough time How does the pilot react after the hydraulic failure?
one of the two black boxes recovered from the Jeju Air plane that crashed in South Korea on Sunday suffered partial damage, which will delay the analysis to identify the cause or causes of the accident, South Korean authorities have acknowledged. “Deciphering FDR alone could take about a month,” they noted. However, the families of the deceased demand clear and immediate answers.
Commander Ángel González, member of the technical department of the Spanish union Sepla, remembers that any investigation of an air accident takes time, “because effectively It is necessary to see what are the contributing causes and the lastand it’s very soon. “We have to let the investigation take its course,” he says.
flocks of birds
The main hypothesis being discussed is that the impact of a flock of birds could have disabled the plane’s landing gear. Several international experts have highlighted in recent hours that the bird strike with airplanes is an event that must be survived and they are so common that they are taken into account in the design of modern aircraft.
“For a flock of birds to bring down a plane is not frequent, what can happen is that they destroy one engine or both if you are very unlucky,” says Giménez, a lawyer who advises on aviation safety.. “They don’t throw you, but you run out of power… and from what it seems to me, they were also left without certain braking systems. This will all come out with the investigation,” he adds.
Airports in all countries usually carry out a bird risk assessment, depending on migratory routes, the time of year and they have protocols to keep them away from the tracks, with falconry or artificial noise systems. But sometimes impacts occur.
The commander of Sepla, González, remembers what happened in The Hudson River accident when a flock of birds severely damaged the engines of a plane that landed in the New York river. “On that occasion he survived the entire passage thanks to the skill of the pilots, their extensive knowledge of the plane and a successful improvised procedure, for which they had enough time.”
The lack of time to react, due to a surprise effect at very low altitude, could be the key to the tragedy in South Korea. “It’s a pretty compromised situation.. A very serious surprise effect flying so low is very difficult to solveyou lack time,” says Commander González.
a concrete wall
The South Korean plane broke up and caught fire when it crashed into a concrete wall located at the end of runway 19. The wall housed a device called a locator, an array of antennas used to guide aircraft during their approach and landing.
Many aeronautics experts recognize that it is not the most common existence of unbreakable walls at the end of the landing strips. And there is widespread concern about the location of a perimeter barrier against which the plane ended up impacting at high speed on Sunday.
According to several media outlets, South Korea’s Vice Minister of Transportation, Joo Jong-wan, said that The 2,800 meter length of the runway was not a contributing factor to the accident and maintained that the walls at the ends that guard the antennas that serve to facilitate landings were built according to industry standards.
Commander González indicates that, indeed, There are airports that do have similar obstaclesand that by law they are required to maintain a minimum distance of 90 meters from the end of the runway, a distance that the international pilots federation, the Ifalparecommends raising from 90 to 240 meters for safety.
A concatenation of failures
Advisor Giménez is struck by the fact that the pilots did not circle in the air before touching down for the second time, after reviewing the images in which the plane is seen turned into a ball of fire. “The pilots know in advance that they do not have landing gear and they normally circle in the air in a safe area to get rid of the kerosene, until they have just enough fuel left to land. But here they tried to land once, they couldn’t, and the second time they crashed. “I don’t know, maybe they were in such a hurry that they didn’t even have time.”
The Sepla technician also explains that without wheels or braking system, although it may seem otherwise, with its belly a plane moves at a higher speed: “It slides more on the track, as it is not possible to stop it.”
Giménez does not fully understand that there were no firefighters deployed. He explains that the usual thing when a plane has problems with the landing gear is to notify the tower “so that the airport firefighters can prepare the runway, put foam so that there are no sparks. Here either everything happened too quickly or the protocols failed,” he suggests. And it indicates that in the video of the accident it is deduced that the pilots did not deploy the flaps to brake the aircraft, which indicates that there may have been failures in the hydraulic systems.
Pending mandatory government investigations, South Korea has ordered inspection of all aircraft Boing on national airlines. Jeju Air, the affected company, for its part, reported that it had not identified any mechanical problems with the damaged plane in routine checks. However, this Monday it suffered 67,000 cancellations of reservations after Another device reported problems with the landing gear after taking off on a domestic flight.
South Korean authorities will also investigate, precisely, whether the Muan airport locator, a set of antennas designed to guide aircraft and surrounded by a concrete perimeter, should have been built with lighter materials They break easily upon impact.
This is how the accident happened, minute by minute
The lack of reaction time seems key. Below are shown the final minutes of flight 7C2216 according to the South Korean Ministry of Transportation and firefighters. All times are Korean time. 8:54 am. Muan airport air traffic control clears the plane to land on runway 01. 8:57 am. Air traffic control issues a “caution: bird activity” notice. 8:59 am. The pilot of flight 7C2216 reports a bird strike, declares an emergency “Mayday Mayday Mayday” and “Bird strike, bird strike, foiled.” 9:00 am. Flight 7C2216 begins a go-around and requests clearance to land on runway 19. 9:01 am.
Air traffic control clears landing on runway 19. 9:02 am. Flight 7C2216 contacts the runway at the approximately 1,200 m (1,312 yd) point of the 2,800 m (3,062 yd) runway. 9:02:34 am. Air traffic control alerts of “crash campaign” at the airport fire rescue unit. 9:02:55 am. The airport fire rescue unit completes the deployment of the fire rescue team. 9:03 am. Flight 7C2216 crashes into a wall after missing the runway. 9:10 am. Ministry of Transportation receives accident report from airport authorities
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